How Should We Regard The Ancient Teachings?

When the world was young, in the great spiritual centers of the world, the citadels of ancient learning, by and large, people worshipped idols. There was worship of the sun, the moon, the golden calf and the sacred monkey. There were animal and human sacrifices. Much later and extending even into our modern age, Jesus Christ is still viewed by many to be one such human sacrifice. "He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. By his stripes, we are healed. He died in payment for our sins," that is, according to those who don't want to make restitution for their own transgressions. They want someone else to pay for their mistakes, and they have chosen to bestow this great honor to Christ. According to them, it is Christ, in fact, who should be thankful for being so honored.

Earlier were the days of Jehovah, the vengeful God and the Ten Commandments which were very much like admonishments, dos and don'ts given to little children, because in fact, the mental capacities of the people of those periods were only like those of little children, ignorant, selfish and immature. We now know that the Earth is only a training school for spirit students. We spirit beings incarnate many times in order to study in this school. Thousands of years ago, we were those very same people in the world, only that during those times, we were much, much younger spiritually, much less developed, much more ignorant than we are now. Jesus confirms this when he said; "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

In Persia, women and slaves were bought and sold like cattle, which practice still persists in certain parts of the world. And in the estimation of those people, even wars can be holy, as in the case of the Jihads or the Islamic holy wars. Admittedly, in the early days, it may have been necessary to go to war just so the Faith may survive. However, in our age of ecumenism and integration, the continued validity of this teaching is at best doubtful.

In India, the caste system is still in effect in certain places. Now, we agree that spirit beings are at various levels in the order of evolution. But this concept was misunderstood and misapplied to the order of physical things. These Hindus have failed to realize that our present worldly status in life is in no wise related to the degree of our spiritual attainment, but that such worldly position is conferred on us in order that we may develop certain desired qualities. Therefore, a person will be given wealth so that he may learn to handle wealth wisely, not for himself alone but for others, as well. Another person will be allowed to rise to a position of power in order that he may learn the responsibilities of wielding power over others. Accordingly, one born to the Brahmans is not necessarily already a holy priest of God but that he is being given the opportunity to train to become one; while one born to the Sudra or laborer caste could rise to become a prophet of God. Jesus Christ, son of the carpenter, is of the least who rose to become the highest to demonstrate to all the fallacy of this belief.

In Egypt, dead bodies were mummified and pyramids were built for the futile purpose of preserving the worldly treasures of the dead for use in their afterlife. They probably believed in the resurrection of dead bodies, never mind the worms, the acrid smell of embalming chemicals, the discolored skin and the fallen hair. Now, we know better. Today, we prefer new and better handling, beautiful and youthful physical vehicles. And the treasures, well, they cannot be taken to the next world. Riches and wealth may be the coin of the realm as far as this world is concerned but beyond Earth, money has no value whatsoever. No one can bribe his way to Heaven, no matter what some of our politicians and government officials may believe. Neither can they legislate laws or issue decrees to contravene God's laws.

The spiritual teachings were couched in the form of Vedic stories and Biblical parables akin to fairy tales to cater to our childish fantasies and preferences. We would not give solid food to little babies because they have no teeth with which to grind food or stomachs strong enough to fully digest such food. Instead, we feed them fluids and soft foods which are all they can handle. Similarly, the higher levels of learning have not been available to the people in the world, but the higher principles have been reserved for later dissemination when we shall have evolved sufficiently enough to be able to understand these higher concepts.

From the foregoing, we could conclude, therefore, that the ancient civilizations, no matter how highly developed in the material sense they may seem to some of us, do not indicate a high level of spiritual attainment. The ancient peoples may be considered worldly-wise, however, they were, in fact, spiritually foolish due mainly to their youth and limited experiences.

Likewise, the ancient scriptures are products of our youth. They have often been regarded as absolute truths when, in fact, they are not. The wisdom that can be derived from the ancient scriptures served only to raise the level of ignorance of the world to a lesser level of ignorance. Explanations were provided enabling us to advance a few grades higher in the order of evolution. But now, we find that the explanations of yesterday no longer satisfy us. Of course, some of the Ancient Teachings are eternal truths. However, much more, including many of the old Occult Teachings are only half-truths or initial instructions for beginning students. And inadequate knowledge, oftentimes, does more harm than good because it prevents us from being open to the new and advanced teachings.

At the beginning of every new age, Christ comes to light the way. To prepare the world for his coming, new explanations, new insights, new approaches, new teachings are being made available. Contrary to what some people may believe, divine revelations never cease to be given, rather, the unfolding continues just as soon as we have made ourselves ready to receive even higher truths. In considering the New Teachings, we should not disregard the revered Ancient Teachings; instead, we should relate the old with the new and update our understanding of these truths, to make them relevant to our present situation.

With reference to ‘At the Feet of the Master’ in furtherance of our spiritual studies, we should learn to discriminate between the important and the unimportant, between the useful and the useless, and between the true and the false. To these criteria, we must subject all information which form the bases of our studies. In this connection, ‘At the Feet of the Master’ also enjoins us to distinguish between the more useful, those things that relate to the spiritual and the eternal and the less useful which are things that relate purely to the physical or the transient.

Most importantly, the Master gives us this very wise counsel and we quote:

"There are in the world many untrue thoughts, many foolish superstitions and no one who is enslaved by them can make progress. Therefore, you must not hold a thought just because many other people hold it, not because it has been believed for centuries nor because it is written in some book which men think sacred; you must think of the matter for yourself, and judge for yourself whether it is reasonable. He who walks the Path must learn to think for himself, for superstition is one of the greatest evils in the world, one of the fetters from which you must utterly free yourself."