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A Book about Master Jesus/Chapter 1: John the Baptist

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Chapter 1:
John the Baptist

We were waiting for the Messiah in those days! We waited and believed very much that He would be coming soon! We believed in a strong and formidable Divine Messenger who would conquer all enemies, bring deliverance from all oppression, and bring peace and prosperity to the people of Israel.

But instead, Jesus came with a message of Love and Peace for all the peoples of the Earth for many centuries, and millennia to come…… He came meek and humble in all the Unbreakable Power of Universal Knowledge and Divine Love!

It was not easy to comprehend this at once. And yet, I recognized Him as God's Messenger, I trusted Him with all my heart, with all my soul, and followed Him… It was not my doing at all — He revealed Himself to me… He chose me as a companion and helper. He allowed me to be with Him, to follow Him all my life! To follow first until His death and resurrection, and then to follow Him still, to a life of service to people, to acceptance of the death of the body, and to the attainment of Eternal Life!

When I met Jesus, I thought I already knew God's Covenants and had good aspirations for my people. But something special happened and a profound transformation of the soul began. I was overwhelmed and shattered in my little knowledge by the Message of Universal Love that Jesus revealed to people. By him, I was melted down and as if born again — born in Spirit and in Truth.

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But still, I must begin my story with John, John the Baptist, as he is commonly called today. He was my first Teacher. Without the spiritual Knowledge and skills received from John, I would only have been able to perceive the outward side of what Jesus showed and told me.

So first let there be a chapter on the prophet John.

There are many stories in the Scriptures of the people of Israel about the People-Prophets who spoke directly to God. All of us in those days read and heard about it in temples and prayer meetings.

At that time I attended meetings and talks of the small community of Essenes, and I was even going to join their community. Many things became clearer to me in those gatherings of people who honor high morality.

Listening to the speeches in that congregation, I was deeply imbued with the ideas of the Essenes about the rules of living a righteous life, about the principles of kindness and purity.

The moral standards proclaimed in this community were strict: no blood sacrifices, no recognition of one person's ability to own another as a slave, no usury, avoid luxury, be like brothers and sisters to each other, work hard, help each other in everything, take care of the weak, and use no weapons of any kind. Even some cleansing exercises were then adopted by the Essenes. For example, we did breathing exercises at dawn to strengthen the body and spirit.

I liked that kind of life and, having completed the probationary period to be accepted as a new member, I was going to become one of the brothers in the community. But there were strict rules and rituals, the meaning of which was lost and replaced only by strict obedience to the elders of the community.

There was a great reverence for Moses in that community. But none of its members had the ability to hear God or perform anything like the miracles of the Scriptures.

… But we heard that there was now a prophet in Israel named John, who could hear God and proclaimed the imminent coming of the Messiah.

Several of the people who attended the Essenes’s congregation meetings, including me, went to hear John's sermons.

Seeing a living Prophet was certainly very interesting! We also wanted to dispel doubts that this was not some rogue who gathers crowds of curious people, but a true Prophet. It was said about Him that He had spent many years alone in the desert in strict asceticism — and then He began to hear messages from God!

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And so we came to the place where John lived and preached.

We were shocked by what we saw and heard and did not go back to our homes or to the community. We stayed close to John for several years.

Here we were not only discovering the rules of morality and purity of souls, but the real God became a part of our daily life!

For those who only came and went, His preaching was very simple. He spoke of cleansing and repentance at the very beginning levels of the process.

For those who stayed with Him, it was different… He taught special techniques, special methods of quieting the mind and transforming the energies of the body. John had been to distant lands and knew a lot from the spiritual traditions of other peoples and from the use of spiritual practices.

He explained to us that purification of body, mind, and soul is necessary to be able to perceive the Divine!

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It is important to remind people of this! In order to become able to perceive God, a deep and comprehensive cleansing is necessary.

And we gradually learned from John how to do it.

These ways and methods are not new in the spiritual world. But I repeat this again, because so many neglect purification and repentance when they strive with great pride to master the heights of the Spirit. This often leads to catastrophic delusions and painful falls. And it takes a long time for those who have neglected the initial steps of the Spiritual Path to get out of these broken states.

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John taught us comprehensively. He taught the transformation of both bodies and souls. The understanding of the laws of purity came to us through fasting and food purification, through understanding and accepting the commandment of not harming anyone with our thoughts, words, and deeds.

The ability to keep silence, control over speech, truthfulness, honesty even in thoughts before oneself and in words spoken to others. It may seem difficult… But if you really pay attention to your self-justifying thoughts and words, you can see so much.

The asceticism of external life, where we had almost no possessions and did not have to dream of material prosperity, was also an important part of our training. This strict simplicity of life, in which everything is directed to the knowledge of the Divine, is a definite stage marking the beginning of serious spiritual growth on the Path.

In the society of those days, as in the society of today, it was customary to judge people by their material wealth, their success in worldly life, and their influence among others…

This is not to say that people do not need to develop themselves in worldly skills and should not achieve success in earthly affairs. This also develops the body, the mind, and the soul… And without development in the plane of material life, souls do not mature sufficiently to direct their eyes only to spiritual endeavors. But for us, at that time, John revealed a stage of spiritual growth, a stage of striving solely toward God! This is often referred to as monasticism. We did not take any special vows or oaths but simply followed the lessons of John.

Much in our life with Him was devoted to purification of bodies… It was not only ablutions, not only pure nutrition and fasting, but also energetic purification with the help of special meditative methods. Using special practices, centers of energy in our bodies were opened and inner channels of the streams of Light were purified.

We talked a lot about God, read the Scriptures, and asked John questions. And He would answer. But He didn't always answer directly, because He taught us to think for ourselves, to learn to understand rather than blindly follow what was written and read in the texts.

Slowly I came to understand that reading wise texts, listening to inspired conversations is very useful, but it cannot replace spiritual work on oneself-soul and practical meditations on developing the ability of the consciousness-soul to perceive, to feel, to think, to realize. The traps of the earthly mind immerse us in the illusion that what we have heard is already understood, but only the experience of the soul brings indestructible knowledge.

And very gradually in our lives alongside John, we came to feel the pervasiveness of all things by God, the Real Intimacy of God all the time, in every day of our lives!

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We also saw John speaking to God, speaking from God!

It was special! He was transformed during those moments in an incredible way. He became like an empty vessel through which the Divine Light reached the world. The Divine Words found a voice and sounded!

At that time, I didn't think about it, I didn't understand the difference between a Messiah and a Prophet. It was amazing to me to know that it was even possible to hear God Himself!

When we saw this happening, we began to understand how to distinguish between those moments of John's Oneness with the Primordial Creating Divine Consciousness and those moments when there was a man with us — yes, one great in spiritual feats, who had learned much, but who was separated at that moment from the Oneness with the Higher Divine Power.

John did not work miracles before us with this Power when he merged with it. He did not heal those who were suffering, but He knew this Power of the One, knew how to merge with it for a time and make the Divine Presence perceivable to us, His disciples.

He brought us closer to God and God to us through his body, his words, the meditations he gave us, and the whole way of life in which we were immersed around him!

Without this discipleship with John, I could not have become a disciple of Jesus. These were the years of insight and spiritual maturation that allowed all the most important things in my life to happen…