That a follower of the Blessed Master may not eat flesh will be recognized when the meaning
of the Master’s life is understood. What was the purpose of that life? Was it not one of Redemption? What was the nature of the Redemption which He meant to accomplish? Was it not the restoration to man’s life of the Divine purity, love and goodness? And how were these to be restored within man's spiritual system, unless the man was to be purified upon every sphere of experience, learn the profound and all-embracing nature of the Divine Love, and the universality of the Divine Goodness in its manifestations. And how could a man become pure whilst he defiled his body with the flesh of the sacrificed Creatures, his mind with the unlovely conduct of having the helpless slain to minister unto his low tastes, and his heart with the violation of the fundamental principles of all true compassion and pity? How could he come to know the Divine Love without first realizing its own tender reverence for all life? How could he know and understand the Divine Goodness unless he learnt to permit it to flow as a life-giving stream through his own life, expressing itself in gentleness, fellow-feeling, and spiritual kinship with all true forms of life?
That this view of the Redemption to a true spiritual state is not that which the Churches believe in and teach, will be admitted by all who have learnt at the shrines of these Communities. For the Churches, though differing amongst themselves, nevertheless all date their origin and teaching from the Records which were supposed to have been written by those who knew the Master and understood what His Christhood meant. But in these Records the true Redeemed Life illustrated by the Master is so obscured that none can tell what it really was, except those unto whom it has been given to behold the erroneous presentation, to see the true picture, and to restore the long-lost vision of the Christhood. The Redemption to be accomplished by the Master is not presented in the Records as a life lifted up out of the influences of the evil conditions which prevail in the world, but rather as something to be accomplished by Him, quite apart from the upliftment of the Soul and its co-operation in the work.
It is presented as a mysterious work wrought on behalf of the Race, the true nature of which none may fully understand. And all the Sayings in which the Redemption is spoken of, have been made to relate to the personal Jesus, rather than to the Christhood which was made manifest through Him, consequently their mystic meanings were all changed, and their profound significations became lost. That happened to them which happened to the pure spiritual teachings in other ages. They were made material instead of spiritual in their meanings, and personal rather than universal in their relationships.
The Redemption was thus changed from being a Divine work within man, to that of a Divine work outside of him, and apart from him; from an inward experience whose influences touched the whole realm of man's life, to be only a work wrought on his behalf, by which the attitude of the Divine Love was changed towards him.
Such is the picture of the Redemption of the life presented in the Records upon which the Churches have built up their organizations and theories. And it is not difficult to understand how it has happened in the Western World where the religion of a Christhood is widely confessed, that the true Redeemed Life has not been understood by those who worship within the various Sanctuaries.
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What are those features which should distinguish a Christian from any who may not profess belief in Christ and the Christhood? Are they to be regarded as mere intellectual differences, the results of difference of birth and environment? Are they to be circumscribed by the assent of the mind to certain views held by the Churches, or the outward admiration of the Master and professed allegiance to Him such as the world gives to earthly potentates? Are they to find the fullness of their manifestation in the religious fervour and ecclesiastical devotion which are characteristics of all religions? Are not all these features to he found where no Christhood is professed, where the religious concepts and life are considered to be greatly inferior to those of the Christian? Indeed, in some of the Eastern religions there is a far higher conception of the sacredness of all life than may be found in the West. The principles underlying these religions inculcate humaneness in a way unknown within the Christian Churches. And the writings upon which these religions are founded lay stress upon true charity or love towards all the Creatures as one great essential to the right understanding of Divine Things and the attainment of the Divine Life.
Wherein then lie the distinguishing features of Christianity and of the man who would interpret Christianity in his life by being a Christian? Is it not, in this, that Christianity gathers up into itself every good in all the other religions, giving to them a new and higher meaning, transcending them in its vision of the purpose of the Divine Love concerning this world and all its children (Human and Creature), and giving a very real meaning to the Soul in its Evolution, Fall, Redemption and Regeneration? And in gathering up all that is good in the other religions, it could not fail to make manifest a most beautiful love towards all Souls, a compassion immeasurable in its outflow unto all who are weak and defenceless, and a pity towards the Creatures tender and boundless. It could not fail to reveal wherever it was truly received, a life full of purity and goodness, a life whose every sphere was purified and which made manifest the Redeemed Life as the attainment of Redemption. It would not fail where the other religions had failed by simply setting forth the nature of the Redeemed Life (as in the case of Buddhism), and leaving man without a perfect embodiment of its meaning, but would give a most unmistakable manifestation of what the Redeemed Life was, so that all men might in beholding it know the nature of the life unto which they were called. And, as the crown of all other religions it would not fail to show forth the inner meaning of a Christhood, what it was in its nature, how it was to be attained, and in what sense it was the crown of the Redeemed Life; and it would illustrate all these things in a sublime interpretation given in manifestation through one who lived the Redeemed Life and was crowned with the Christhood Estate.
That the Life and Teachings of the Blessed Master transcended any manifestation in earlier times would have been known unto the whole Western World had the Records which purport to portray Him as He lived and taught, contained a true and faithful portrait. But these Records do not contain a true picture of Christ. For had they done so the path to Christhood would not have been hidden. The true way unto the Christhood Estate would have been obvious unto all who desired to enter upon it. The Redeemed Life with its threefold path would have been clear unto every reader. There would have been no room for doubt as to anything the Master meant when He called men and women to live the Redeemed Life. His Teachings concerning the way of the Redemption would not have been so obscure as they now are, and men and women would have known that true Redemption was a thing to be accomplished within them through the Soul and all its powers seeking to realize the Divine Way of Life, the way of purity, goodness and love.
But that these things are obscure must be evident to anyone who knows what the Redemption means. To them the Records must appear as remarkable and strange betrayers of the picture of Christhood, since they fail to direct the Soul to the threefold path of the Redeemed Life, and, instead, simply direct the mind to a personal allegiance to the Master as the true meaning of following Him.
