The Gate of Artemis

About Religion and its contrary

Religion and crooks go on visiting history as a strange but consistent combination. It is not so hard to understand: the simple and gullible followers of a religion, in their sincere desire to progress, are willing to donate generously, are too fast to trust and ready to take abuse under the name of penance.
Have you read the epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, the Galatians or the odd Corinthians? It is all full of the love for Christ, explanations and exhortations and of a burning zeal to spread Christianity. It is well written and elaborate, sophisticated and competent by the standards of that time.
Why then Shri Mataji, expressed such an intense dislike for Saint Paul? She quotes William Blake asking himself why this strange man appears in the bible?
In Paul, there is a gap between being and doing, between what he is, what he says, what he does. His intellect helps managing these gaps. In the crevasses of these gaps grows the fungus of hypocrisy and the degradation of the living, inward and organic religion of Christ into a faith that is mental, external and mechanistic.
Paul builds and spreads something else than Christ had desired and this is the very fallacy that Shri Mataji exposes. Growth without depth killed Christianity before it could be born. The true religion is betrayed and its contrary promoted.
The temptation of Paul is that, under the guise of serving the Lord, he served himself: his zeal was self centered. In short, Paul was a bit of a crook. Today he would have been a web exhibitionist and used all options offered by technology to boost his propaganda machine.

Paul is all about jargon, organizing, converting and spreading the faith. To be sure the man from Tarse was a successful apostle in terms of spreading Christianity to the provinces of the Roman Empire. With his right sided skills, he subjugated many naive new comers in putting on them the stamp of his own brand of religion.
Not being a true Christian, Paul obviously could be excused for spreading a false Christianity. After all he never was with Christ, he did not feel nor imbibe the magic coefficient. But in his urge to lead and the consequent forceful activism, he had to marginalize the other apostles that could have helped him to feel it, using Peter as the front man to reinforce his credibility.
Without being that successful or going that far, more than a few of us may have a little Peter and Paul lurking inside. The guy who wants to be in charge and the guy who wants to call the shots: quite a couple! How do we keep them in check?
As She started the religion of Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, Shri Mataji has tirelessly shown Her followers how to avoid the Paulinian temptation. She warned us against bringing something subtle and spiritual to the grocer level of something temporal that can be manipulated and controlled for a selfish end.
Now She is silence: “I am elusive to judge you” She said. She wants to know how many of Her children stand by Her true teachings, how many are ready to fool around or be befooled.
Yet She equipped us well to face these times. In correcting so many disciples Herself, She helped us realize that, sometimes, we think we are sahaj when this is not yet quite the case. TO BE sahaj is basically the condition to do Sahaj in the manner that shall please Her and the deities.
Then we take notice, we work on ourselves, we improve. In inviting us all to be our own masters, She allowed meditation to inspire and balance our action. As we move on our learning curve, we respect Her teachings and we introspect, witness, see the fault in ourselves and not in the other. We self correct. We forgive and surrender. We bow to God only.
Clowns and crooks are dangerous only when people follow them blindly. This time Dick Tom, Harry, Peter and Paul should think twice before befooling or mishandling the Children of the Devi. And these children should not accept falsehood if they want to be permitted to walk in the footsteps of this Mahavatar of the Third Age.