Massa Jesus My Foot
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Preface
A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure. - Buddha
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| "You are plainly told what you may encounter." |
Clumsy doubleplay: Gospel writers furnished Jesus with an ancestry line through Joseph, while telling he was not his father [Matthew 1:1-16], but that God was, through some angel or something. Jesus wanted to be accepted as a Son of David - of that blood line or house. Then he might appear acceptable to Jews as their kingly Messiah. But when he said God was his father, he was put to death as the Law required, the authorities decided.
The apostle Paul concurred, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for . . . [t]he authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgement on themselves [Rom 13:1-2]." Jesus did, and was next branded as an insane, demoniac blasphemer and executed as a criminal.
We take a look into intricacies and swindles of the Christian faith.
Introduction
In this on-line book you are told what you may encounter if you enroll in a cult or sect. Interestingly, Christianity started as a dangerous sect. Millions got executed, and many got martyrised in other ways too. Has Christianity become less marring since then? Perhaps a good reason there are Christians alive, is that they do not follow the injunctions of Jesus to the letter. They do not pluck out their eyes in front of the television screen, do they?The Americanised guru Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) claims that a secretive sadhu called Babaji and Jesus are in "constant communion" and "have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this age." Would that really be needed? After all, salvation proper in the New Testament is getting the Holy Spirit. And the main techniques "for salvation" that the well-known guru talks of, are essential yoga methods that have existed for long. [MORE].
In Yogananda's church, Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) they strive to fulfill his Babaji-ordained mission: "To reveal the complete harmony and basic oneness of original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna; and to show that these principles of truth are the common scientific foundation of all true religions." [MORE].
The teachings of Krishna are found in spiritual classics. Best known of them are the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata (a very long poem that the Bhagavad Gita is merely a part of, really), and the Uddhava Gita, which is a part of the Srimad Bhagavatam, which is devoted to Vishnu.
Yogananda sets the tone. Monks and nuns in Yogananda's church say his wisdom is faultless. Dogmatised leader infallibility is a main sign of a cult. Besides, Yogananda often talks against himself, and SRF - with centres and meditation groups in over fifty countries so far - has striven for decades to idealise him. One should remain firm against that sort of activity.
The Next Chapters
We may call the pages in this series parts. More than one of them may contain just one chapter.The second part
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| "Irrevokable destruction, is that what that salvation is about?" |
As for Jesus, who is used to prop up the fellowship, he says in the gospels he and his Father are one. Therefore it is only fit to fear and not come near him, unless you are an ill sheep and not a healthy fellow. He did not come for healthy persons, he mentions. Healthy is better than ill and slaving. [Matthew 9:12-13]
You and Babaji and SRF may also have overlooked so far that he is the God of the Bible - a God who is hateful, a times intent on indiscriminate killing of "both the righteous and the wicked" holocausts, massacres, regulated slavery, ritual sacrifices of innocent animals - and his unkempt promises may not turn into anything. It is in the Bible. Those who overlook it have got blinkers over their eyes. The Bible also says that devoting things and persons to the God of the Bible was supposed to be an irrevocable giving over of them, often by totally destroying them? [Exodus 22:20 - NIV note]. Savagery takes many forms. Not everything that is called holy is good. Not every Yogananda claim is true, regrettably.
Why - for the sake of his own decency and purity - did not Babaji do better than banding with baddies? It seems it is about the worst one can do. After all, he was delicate, sensitive earlier, and could barely stand Yogananda's guru. And that is not flattering. "We are people who like the shelter of trees," said Babaji to him, and sweetmeats could not persuade him to tarry in Yukteswar's excited, well-meaning company. Instead he fled and left Yukteswar so deeply hurt that he thought, "Even if we meet again, I would not care to talk to him." [MORE]
That did not come true. Yukteswar did care to talk with Babaji later. This is to say that guru words are not always to be trusted, or trusted to the letter. The sooner such a lesson is learnt, the better our goings could be. Yukteswar cared to talk with the secretive sadhu and even asked him how old he was. If the mysterious Babaji is still among the living, he would be well over 600 years. And besides, if the omniscient Babaji could hardly stand the vibes of Yogananda's guru, preferring the shade of trees, how could he stand to band with the Bible's God who is much fond of sinning against innocents?
Is this getting stranger and stranger or what? There is more: Jesus calls the Great King of Butchers righteous, and thereby himself too, of course, since he says they are one . . . How may Babaji stand those indecent vibes? such muck? Is not that a mystery? We look at scriptural evidence in the following. Suffice to say here: Not everybody that is called Righteous is so. To the contrary. And what is called righteousness takes many forms. For example, the Righteous Brothers with "You've lost that loving feeling" are not even brothers. Some are called 'righteous' and 'brothers' just for show, or the fun of it. We do well to watch out for demagoguery. [MORE]
Would not Babaji and SRF be better off without being in league or constant communion with the God of gruesome sacrifices, slavery, and massacres and robbery on a large scale? Do not say that retracing one's steps from psychopathic killings and similar conduct is trouble-free. In fact, most psychopathic disorders may get irreversible, according to present-day medical knowledge, and there is nothing you can do to help Babaji unless you find him. Few do that, and even then, maybe he will not listen. If he is siding with cold-blooded deceit and murder of victims by way of butchering called sacrifice, that can be expected and should come as no surprise.
Surprising disregard of the scriptures in Yogananda
There is more in the first part (chapter) that may intrigue us. One thing is the pinpointing that the Bible's God hates many, Krishna's Brahman ("God") hates none. The Bible's God is given many hallmarks that are absent in the Brahman (God) of Bhagavad Gita. That God is not a vindictive bully.Self-Realization means knowledge of the Self, says the Bhagavad Gita 9:1,3. That great classic also says that "Fools disregard the great Lord of Intelligence and splendour, that ongoing happiness within." [Bhagavad Gita 9:11; 7:10; 5:21]. it is a great experience, "finding God", as Yogananda also calls it at times. Krishna also talks much for Vedic sacrifices and Vedic duties. Unknown to some, there are old Hindu law-books that tell about such matters, over 5,000 titles. All may not suit conform Christian living. We bring examples. [MORE]
What Yogananda was sent to the West to do, basically, was to spread techniques and teachings of Self-realisation, making known the teachings of his guru Yukteswar from the book The Holy Science. [Hos] [MORE]
Yogananda and other disciples of Babaji say the soul is eternal and cannot be destroyed. Jesus on the other hand says the soul can be destroyed [Matthew 10:28]. The "great ones" that prop up SRF are not more reconciled than that. The SRF gurus and Jesus proclaim differently and propagate very different teachings. They in communion!?
We have managed to pad gospel points that may serve to show how Jesus was executed as an insane, blaspheming guy that ordered, "obey everything I have commanded you." [Matthew 28:18-20]. Now most of the regulations and practices of the earliest church, as described in the New Testament (NT) letters, are missing in SRF, and many of the sayings of Jesus are not lived by "good Christians" at all. They hope that Conformism will be the God Saviour in that, it seems. But that is not all. They go for Mammon too, even vehemently and all their grown-up lives.
Maybe it is not so bad, apart from the deceit. Wealth is OK, it can and should be used for good, starting with oneself. That is a main point in Buddha teachings. They also regulate accumulation of wealth in a sensible way; whereas the church by and large has failed to adhere to the be-ye-impoverished-groupies teachings of Jesus. The Catholic Church teaches more or less in the wake of Buddha that charity begins at home. Home is where the heart is.
And we too hold
Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick . . . "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." [Matthew 9:12-13]It should be better to be healthy and upright than sick or corrupt and taken in by greast deceit. So watch your steps. Not a few gurus who are called holy, bring strongly wrongful teachings. Jesus too. Let there be no doubt about it.
Jesus wanted his words and salvation for Jews only, till he realised they preferred a highway man instead. So how many of his sayings are truly valid? The apostles and their Spirit decided to drop nearly all of his injunctions to benefit Gentile believers. [Acts 15; 21:25] Paul was disapproved by Christian Jews. As for the early "original Christianity of Jesus" that SRF says it stands for but does not live (luckily), they should not encourage anyone to pluck out their eyes, tear of limbs, maim penises and seek to be with Jesus instead of walking away from him and ill sheep too, as far as they can. For "Make yourself a sheep and the wolves will eat you." However, "The wolf eats sheep now and then, but thousands are devoured by men." [Ap 534]. It is suggested that unwholesome conformity can be very bad too, not just sect living of victims of drivel and torture. The large society is far from ideal. It is exploitative, maddening to some, and the urbanisation may breed nervous isolation too.
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| "A lasting ordinance - oh yeah?" |
Well, would you know! The sacrifice of Jesus as a madcap or similar may have been "out of the blue", not something done "according to the book" at any rate. There is so much in the bible that is ignored. A flock of goats could have done the trick better than Jesus. His Jews-only mission became a fiasco, a failure, you know. The word 'fiasco' is from Late Latin flasco bottle. We were once told in Venice once that when glassblowers failed in making some piece or artistry, they made a bottle of the hot, rotated glass mass instead. That should be the origin of the meaning. Otherwise, roots may go back to Germanic. The fiasco of Jesus was that the Jews rejected him as their Laws dictated they should. That Law was instituted by his Father that he was one with - according to Jesus and the Bible, that is.
Jesus said salvation would come from the Jews [John 4:21-23]; no to other Christs or false Christs [Mark 13:21-23; Matthew 24:23-25]; no to many masters [Matthew 23:7-9], no to other masters and teachers than himself, and so on." Did he lie in this? For SRF and Yogananda ignore it.
Persons from outside Christianity who stand up as Yogi-Christs or are presented as Christs, were they fathered by an angel and later crucified? Hardly. Having several gurus (masters) is not what Jesus tells in the Gospel. He even warns against false Christs. the six SRF gurus are called Christs by Yogananda. he defines Christ differently than the church, and differently than Jesus. If that is part of his "original Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ", so it is.
Yoga and meditation could be good for man. Not all gurus cheat heartlessly. We may have given the impression on other pages that we have much faith in Jesus. The opposite is true. Jesus spoke with the cleaven tongue [Compare John 18:19-21 with Matthew 13:11-17]. [MORE]
If you master Norwegian, you may find our selected, presumably helpful sayings of the New Testament in the Norwegian part of the Gold Scales site. We have also brought on-line very many sayings attributed to Gautama Buddha. His main teachings may be very helpful against being duped and get heart-broken. [NOTE]. We have a fond eye to Alice Bailey's teachings, or Theosophy; non-maddeded parts of Hinduism, and Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy teachings. Our approach is largely eclectic (selective).
"False data can cause one to make stupid mistakes," says L. Ron Hubbard somewhere - and that freeing the individual is the fundamental purpose of religion. Agreed. [MORE]
Part 3
In this part we highlight the slavery teachings of the Old and New Testament with what Buddhism is supposed to stand for. The greater part of Ali Baba and the Forty Robbers is included too.Part 4
How Judas died in two ways - and what it suggests. If you have nervous troubles, refrain from that page.Part 5
Mustard teachings of Jesus should not have been canonised, wrong as they are.Part 6
This part highlights how generous parts of the Old Testament describes Yahweh (Jehovah), the Father of Jesus, the one he says he is the son of and one with, and so on. It is a gruesome picture.Part 7
How Jesus abuses prophets is studied next. There is much to learn.Part 8
Here we cover the "Messiah CV", that is, highlight some of the marks of Jesus as found in the Bible. He is for sick people only - he himself says it. He cheats and spread teachings that are not healthful, such as about maiming oneself over and above the Jewish custom of circumcision. Have you ever wondered about the tragedy or irony of it if God was born, but could not be accepted in the society because of his foreskin? And what if it was cut off and it still did not help?Part 9
So many like to drivel about Jesus as a King, and a king of the house of David, even. There is very good reason to stop it. The ancient biblical king is an enemy to his people - not really lovable. Read for yourself and get out of king-submission the day you can.Part 10
How badly Jesus treated pigs who were owned by other people.Part 11
Unsavoury propagation and dogmatic propaganda are not worth backing up - at least not ideal.Part 12
Harsh penance is hardly ideal for anyone.Part 13
Cults may breed insanity.Part 14
We check Jesus against the criteria used for ten personality disorders, and he does not come out clean at all, as judged by the New Testament evidence, that is.Part 15
A road-test of Jesus is carried out, and he does not come out clean here either. The gospels witness about him presents someone that appears to have very many traits of the compulsive personality disorder. He might score just as much on other tests as well. If he is alive and kicking yet, is he a psychopath or not?Maybe you should try the test on yourself first.
Part 16
Divorcing is a subject that concerns many. Jesus says different things about it in different gospels. A Buddhist take is largely favourable. |
Literature
Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Theosophical, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]
Pa: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 11th ed. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1971.
Mmb: Buzan, Tony, with Barry Buzan. The Mind Map Book. Rev. ed. London: BBC Books, 1995.
Wha: Hubbard, Lafayette Ronald. The Way to Happiness: A Common Sense Guide to Better Living. Np: ABLE International. 1996. On-line. [www.thewaytohappiness.org/lndex.htm]
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