A Book about Master Jesus/Chapter 2: Baptism

Chapter 2:
Baptism

It is customary for me to be called “the First-Called» — for I was allowed to see Jesus and come up to Him after John had proclaimed Him before the people who had gathered for baptism by the waters of the Jordan River…

That day was special. John himself probably knew that Jesus was coming, but he did not tell us or the people who gathered to hear him preach.

John spoke at length before a large group of people who had come to hear him speak and be cleansed.

Then they came one by one to Him for the symbolic washing and baptism.

John stood in the waters of the Jordan… The sun was shining. He Himself called by name the one who was to be next baptized, for He saw the condition of the soul and the readiness to repent of former trespasses and accept purification and new life with Faith and Joy.

The person receiving baptism was immersed in the waters of the Jordan.

For most, it was only a symbol of purification, a final act of repentance. From this moment on, the ways of iniquity were rejected and faith gave strength to overcome the vices of the soul.

But for some, there was more: the mind was silent at the moment of immersion in the water, the silence was overwhelming, and the rays of the sun shone through the transparent streams. And the States of the Divine Presence were enhanced by John himself as a Soul. For those who experienced the silence of the soul, for brief moments the space of the Great Silence and the Light of the Divine was opened! It was perceived as a miracle! The touch of the Divine state was remembered by the soul! The first experience of the reality of God occurred if the soul was ready to become aware of it. At any rate, this was the case with myself and with some of my friends whose spiritual experiences I knew well. This is what happened when John baptized us…

Almost no one who had such an experience without further training could ever reproduce it, but the memory of it remained in the soul and strengthened faith and righteousness in daily life.

He taught us, those who were left to live with John, to live again and again in the perception of the Divine World through the efforts of the soul in spiritual advancement, through spiritual practices.

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So we, John's disciples, could see and feel so much more that day. We noticed that amazing change in our surroundings as Jesus began to approach us…

Everything around us was transformed: the birds stopped their mundane chirping and sang as in the spring mating season…

And then everything around us was naturally filled with an immovable, special silence that usually required deep meditation to enter. It was as if time had slowed down…

Not all of the people present felt it. But we did see the One about whom John had told us so much before approaching us. He was walking slowly. A special space of Light surrounded Him. This Light was not seen with the eyes of the body, but was perceived by the vision of the soul.

We couldn't take our eyes off the face of Jesus, even though outwardly there seemed to be nothing special about His very simple light clothes, the strands of His hair that glinted in the sun, or the fluid movements of His body…

We all froze in that special Divine Space that He carried with Himself-Consciousness. We were witnesses of how Jesus approached John, of how they embraced one another.

Then John performed the ordained baptism with the waters. A rainbow shone in the tiniest drops over the surface of the Jordan, signifying the Higher Radiance, Which, at the same time, was now visible to all the people present.

The manifestation of the solemnity of the moment was felt incredibly brightly. The Divine Luminosity was reflected in everything: in the tides of sunlight in the water, in the rays penetrating the leaves of the trees on the shore… This solemnity, marking the beginning of the Great Service, was also in many worlds of the Universe, which we could not yet perceive!

John said:

“Here is the Messiah! He is here! What was destined and foretold is now accomplished!”

When Jesus came out of the water, many birds, hushed for the duration of the sacrament but now rejoicing in the bliss of what was happening, circled around … Among them was a dove, which is now considered a symbol of the Holy Spirit, for people saw and remembered the external …