BIBLE LESSONS BY VITVAN
THE SIX DAYS OF CREATION
Genesis, 1
This is the first lecture of a series based upon the Christian Scriptures.
Before entering upon the subject I have chosen for this evening, I wish to
speak of the various methods employed in the interpretation of the
Scriptures. Some take the Bible literally, entirely overlooking the fact
that it is an Oriental production, rich in the imagery peculiar to the
Orient; others study it as a teaching given symbolically; and still others
from the standpoint of allegory. These methods result in a truer
interpretation, according to my vision of the Scriptures, than the literal
method. But there is still another way of interpreting the Bible, and this
way I use--it is the understanding born of such interpretation that I shall
endeavor to share with you.
I do not believe in declaring and insisting upon the literal truth of the
words as they are written; I do not believe in torturing the text to find
another meaning; I do not believe in going far afield to find a symbolic or
an allegoric meaning behind the text; I believe in going directly into the
heart of the meaning itself. In my study of the Scriptures I endeavor to
approximate in my own consciousness the state from which the vision was
conceived--thus I come into the clear perception of its meaning; then I
study the way in which it was translated into concrete terms by the great
Realizers of old. That is the manner of my approach to the study of the
Bible.
Realizations born from the profound depths of the awakened consciousness
are very difficult to express in thought and word. Those who have had that
deeper vision of the processes of God in bringing out manifestations have
given it to humanity as clearly as possible, but so long as humanity was
limited to an objective and concrete state of development, it received
everything with which it was confronted, including the Scriptures, in an
objective and concrete way. But when the state of our individual being
begins to expand, we begin to develop faculties with which to apprehend
finer meanings; in time these faculties enable us to function in an inner,
higher realm. Then, and not until then, do we have the ability to
understand the Enlightened Ones who were the channels used by the Universal
Power to articulate our Christian Scriptures.
In all of my work I endeavor to teach and impart, not to lecture and
sermonize, for these things must be learned line upon line, precept upon
precept, until the vision unfolds within us. We have been preached at too
much; the only way to make true progress is by our own individual effort
and application. I cannot eat the food which nourishes your body, neither
can I study the Divine Word and expand your consciousness into its meaning;
but I can devote my life to that study, and, as I gain understanding, I can
share it with you and point out the way by which you can attain it for
yourselves. I shall make many positive statements, and I want to ask you
now not to misinterpret my attitude in doing so. Do not consider that I am
dogmatic, or that I wish to force my perception of Truth upon you. In your
own minds, do not put me into the position of preaching at you
dogmatically. My statements will be positive because they are made from my
realization of these truths, but you must understand all the time that my
attitude is this: I offer to you my vision, my understanding; you will
determine whether your consciousness receives it, whether your Spirit bears
witness to its truth.
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"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." To the Infinite
Consciousness there is no beginning and no ending, but to the finite
consciousness belonging to our individualized state of development there is
a beginning to everything and an ending to everything. In fact, there is
nothing except a beginning and an ending, and this we call "the becoming."
Everything is in flux; nothing is stable; nothing becomes--it always is
becoming. There is beginning, and that beginning is constant; there is
ending, and that ending is constant; and in the midst of the beginning and
the ending only One is stable, and that is the Conceiver of the becoming.
The Conceiver of the becoming changes not; all else changes.
What do I mean by the Conceiver of the becoming? Anything you can name is
becoming--that is, it is constantly beginning and ending--but the "I" of
you is conceiving it. The "I" is the Conceiver of the becoming and does not
change; it is the only thing which is permanent. That which is permanent is
eternal; that which is eternal is infinite; that which is infinite is
divine; and that which is divine is God.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Do you note that
we have already removed our consideration of this passage from the
conceptual realm to the perceptual realm? I am pointing out to you the
basis of misunderstanding and the basis of true understanding. If you study
the Scriptures from a conceptual standpoint, you will have no realization
of their meaning; you can come into the vision only by the way of spiritual
perception, for the things of the Spirit of God are spiritually discerned.
We can conceive things on the mental plane with the faculties of that
plane, but those are the things of the intellect. The things of the Spirit
must be perceived with the spiritual faculties before they can be reduced
to the mental plane and clothed with thought.
Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned; the realization of this is
a point of such importance in the study of the Scriptures that I lay great
stress upon it. All interpretation of the Scriptures from an intellectual
basis will lead us into a hopeless labyrinth of conceptual values, but the
awakened spiritual faculty within can be trusted; it cannot perceive
anything which is not true. It refuses to register anything until the truth
is revealed--then it responds. You must learn to trust that inner response
absolutely; until you do so trust it, the mind will step in with its
conceptual values and argue against the intuitive direction. If you follow
the mind you will make a mistake, and later you will say, "Why did I not
obey my inner feeling?" It is this inner perceptive faculty which cannot
register falsehood that we must depend upon in our interpretation of the
Scriptures. You can cultivate the faculty to such a degree that your inner
response or reaction to a verse of the Scriptures will reveal to you any
interpolation or mistranslation.
Now, agreeing that we cannot interpret the Scriptures from a conceptual
basis, we must next attempt to clear away any concepts already existing.
When the word "God" is mentioned, you have some response to it in your mind
or in your spiritual perception. If the response is a mental creation, God
may be to you an entity--a glorified human being--or God may be represented
by some idea of all-pervading space infilled with power or energy; either
one is a concept--you do not know the meaning of the word "God". God is
Creative Life, and, in essence, you are Creative Life, though not in your
concept of yourself, not in the state in which you are conscious of
yourself. The Power which is conscious of itself, the very
Power-to-be-Conscious, is Creative Life. The power to think, the power to
feel, the power to act, the power to do or be anything--is not that power
Creative Life? That power is
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constantly creating; that Power is God. It is the Conceiver of all
concepts, but it is not a concept; it is the Power-to-Conceive, but it is
not a thing conceived. This God is the Creator of "the heaven and the
earth." Heaven is within your own consciousness; the earth is the objective
appearance or representation of heaven. Thus we have heaven and earth
created simultaneously by Creating Life. You are creating right now;
Creating Life, which is in essence what you are, is conceiving itself, and
whatever it conceives you manifest in some state whether physical,
emotional, mental, or spiritual.
"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The
heaven means the inner state in which conception takes place; the earth is
the outer manifestation. In this first chapter of Genesis, the night or the
darkness is spoken of; this we call the unmanifest. Out of the unmanifest
comes manifestation, or the day, and a firmament is established to divide
the night from the day. Do not take this literally; remember that three
nights and days are described before the sun is mentioned. The sun was
created on the fourth day. In the Ancient Hindu Scriptures the period is
spoken of as the day and night of Brahm. The Buddhists call it a
Maha-manvantara which means the great cycle of manifestation.
Now we have established the meaning of the six days of creation; we have
established that the Creating Life is God. The first point we made was that
the "I", the Power-to-be-Conscious, is the only thing that is permanent,
and that nothing is real to us except that which we are conscious of being.
What connection does the last statement have with the statement concerning
the creation- that out of darkness light comes? Light comes through
self-consciousness, through individualization. Everything depends upon your
individualized state of self-awareness. Only that of which you are
conscious is light. If you could destroy your own individualized point of
self-awareness, there would be only darkness, and you would not be
conscious of the darkness. There would be no God, no concept of God; there
would be no being, and of course, no object of being. All day, all light,
all life, is self-awareness--there is nothing except your Self. Through
individualization we come into the day out of the night. Individualization
divides the darkness from the light, and manifestation appears.
We now manifest the man state of Creative Life; we see readily that the
animal also is Creative Life in a less degree, and, in a still less degree,
that the vegetable is Creative Life. Do you know that the Professor Bose of
the University of Calcutta has proved that the vegetables have loves and
hates? We can go back to the mineral kingdom and find loves and hates in
the atoms in the test tubes. Atoms will coalesce with some other atoms, but
will react from still others. In this way we can go back to the beginning
of manifestation. "And the earth was without form, and void" when it first
was self-aware. But "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God (Creative Life) said, Let there be light; and there was light. And
God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the Light from the
darkness." Dawning individualized consciousness divides the unmanifested
from the manifested, the undifferentiated from the differentiated. "And God
called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and
the morning were the first day." That is the description of the first
period of our creations--the creation of our Godhead realized.
"In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was
waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light;
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: And God
divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day."
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let
it divide the waters from the waters." This firmament is the beginning of
the division of darkness from light, of the unmanifest from the manifest.
It is the developing focalization of Creative Power which we call
individualization. The Creative Power focalizes in a conscious center until
that center possesses itself and masters its environment, masters the
earth, the sea, and the air. The subjugation of all created conditions is
the full development of individualized consciousness as a creative center
of light. That is self-mastery; it is the sixth period of creation.
"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the
firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was
morning, a second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was
so. And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of the
waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the
earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit
after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was
so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their
kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their
kind: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was
morning, a third day."
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the
day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to
give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made the two great
lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven
to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."
These verses are usually accepted in the most literal way; the light is
considered as referring to the physical sun of the solar system. I believe
that it refers to the dawn of the mind, to the period when Creative Power
has developed intellect. These lights are established in the firmament to
give light to the outer realm of the earth--the objective manifestation.
"And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let
birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created
the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith
the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind:
and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on
the earth. And there was evening and there was morning a fifth day. And God
said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle,
and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was
so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle
after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its
kind: And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
seas, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he
them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and
multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heaven, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given
you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall
be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the
heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is
life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw
everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was
evening and there was morning, the sixth day."
This is the sixth period of creation or of development. In the higher
consciousness of the Awakened Ones, man is classified as an animal so long
as he is dominated by his animal nature. There is no advancement out of the
animal kingdom until that period in the man state of consciousness when
Divine Light and Understanding dawn and are manifested. When that Divine
Realization awakens, man is literally created in the image and likeness of
God. Divine Life becomes completely aware of itself in the sixth period.
When that state of development is reached we no longer function in
concepts, we no longer have faith, we are completely aware of our own
divinity, our own immortality; Creative Life images forth perfectly, as it
is in its own divine essence.
When the realization of divinity is fully consummated in an individualized
center of consciousness, he has dominion over all things by reason of the
tremendous power radiating from him. He is no more subject to things and
conditions--he is master of all by virtue of his divine awakened light.
Then, after the labor of creating these six periods of our own world, comes
the glorious seventh day of rest in the Universal Self-awareness. Then are
we "perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
What point in this teaching of the creation is the most vital lesson for
you and me? There are so many vital lessons in it that I could give many
more talks just in pointing them out. The most important is this: You are
the Conceiver; you are birthless, deathless, and changeless; you have the
possibility of mastering all relative conditions, not in a personal, human,
egotistical sense, but in liberation, in divine self-awareness. "To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a
white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth
saving he that receiveth it." We create the new name by the divine powers
of our emancipated state.
No matter what you have been (through the incarnations you have been all
things, so-called high and so-called low), you can create from this moment
what you want to be. Do not look back and so become crystallized,
mentalized, like Lot's wife; look forward to what you are now creating of
yourself. All your past years and lives have been only a preparation for
what is to come; all the experience you have gained so far has become
faculty with which you will create the future. Be aware of yourself as a
center of Creative Life and Power, and soon stronger power will be
evidenced in you. That Self-awareness, that Creative Power, is God--the
only God there is. Emancipate yourselves from concepts; begin to BE.
Declare your BEING; declare yourself as a focalized center of Creating
Power. "Ye are gods . . . and the Scriptures cannot be broken. |
