When Jesus and Shri Mataji talk about God Almighty you (begin to suspect...)

"It always amazes me how many times this God orders the killing of innocent people even after the Ten Commandments said"Thou shall not kill.” For example, God kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3). He orders another attack and the killing of"All the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses" (Joshua 6). In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife! Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody! In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered. The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).”

Gnostic Gospels

"The Christian creed begins with the words 'I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.' Some scholars suggest that this credal statement was originally formulated to exclude followers of the heretic Marcion (c.140) from orthodox churches. A Christian from Asia Minor, Marcion was struck by what he saw as the contrast between the creator-God of the Old Testament, who demands justice and punishes every violation of his law, and the Father whom Jesus proclaims - the New Testament God of forgiveness and love. Why, he asked, would a God who is 'lmighty', all- powerful, create a world that includes suffering, pain, disease - even mosquitoes and scorpions? Marcion concluded that these must be two different Gods. The majority of early Christians condemned this view as dualistic, and identified themselves as orthodox by confessing one God, who is both 'Father Almighty' and 'Maker of heaven and earth'.

When advocates of orthodoxy confronted another challenge - the gnostics - they often attacked them as 'Marcionites' and 'dualists'. Irenaeus states as his major complaint against the gnostics that they, like the Marcionites, say that athere is another God besides the creator'. Some of the recently discovered texts confirm his account. According to the 'Hypostasis of the Archons', the creator's vain claim [1] to hold an exclusive monopoly on divine power shows that he is blind ... [because of his] power and his ignorance [and his] arrogance he said ..., 'It is I who am God; there is none [other apart from me].' When he said this, he sinned against [the Entirety]. And a voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power, saying, 'You are mistaken, Samael,' which means, 'god of the blind'.[2]

Another text discovered in the same codex at Nag Hammadi, 'On the Origin of the World', tells a variant of the same story:

... he boasted continually, saying to (the angels) ... 'I am God, and no other one exists except me.' But when he said these things, he sinned against all of the immortal ones ... when Faith saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was angry ... she said, 'You err, Samael (i.e., 'blind god'). An enlightened, immortal humanity ['nthropos'] exists before you!'[3]

A third text bound into the same volume, the 'Secret Book of John', relates how in his madness ... he said, 'I am God, and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of ... the place from which he had come ... And when he saw the creation which surrounds him and the multitudes of angels around him which had come forth from him, he said to them, 'I am a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me.' But by announcing this he indicated to the angels that another God does exist; for if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?[4]

When these same sources tell the story of the Garden of Eden, they characterize this God as the jealous master, whose tyranny the serpent (often, in ancient times, a symbol of divine wisdom) taught Adam and Eve to resist:

... God gave [a command] to Adam, 'From every [tree] you may eat, [but] from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise do not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die.' But the serpent was wiser than all the animals that were in Paradise, and he persuaded Eve, saying, 'On the day when you eat from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise, the eyes of your mind will be opened.' And Eve obeyed ... she ate; she also gave to her husband.[5]

Observing that the serpent's promise came true - their eyes were opened - but that God's threat of immediate death did not, the gnostic author goes on to quote God's words from Genesis 3:22, adding editorial comment:

... 'Behold, Adam has become like one of us, knowing evil and good.' Then he said, 'Let us cast him out of Paradise, lest he take from the tree of life, and live forever.' But of what sort is this God? First [he] envied Adam that he should eat from the tree of knowledge.... Surely he has shown himself to be a malicious envier.[6]

As the American scholar Birger Pearson points out, the author uses an Aramaic pun to equate the serpent with the Instructor ('serpent', hewya; ato instruct', hawa).[7] Other gnostic accounts add a four-way pun that includes Eve (Hawah): instead of tempting Adam, she gives life to him and instructs him:

After the day of rest, Sophia [literally, 'wisdom'] sent Zoe [literally, 'life'], her daughter, who is called Eve, as an instructor to raise up Adam... When Eve saw Adam cast down, she pitied him, and she said, 'dam, live! Rise up upon the earth!' Immediately her word became a deed. For when Adam rose up, immediately he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he said, 'You will be called"The Mother of the living", because you are the one who gave me life.'[8]

The 'Hypostasis of the Archons' describes Eve as the spiritual principle in humanity who raises Adam from his merely material condition:

And the spirit-endowed Woman came to [Adam] and spoke with him, saying, 'rise, Adam.' And when he saw her, he said, 'It is you who have given me life; you shall be called"Mother of the living"- for it is she who is my mother. It is she who is the Physician, and the Woman, and She Who Has Given Birth.' ... Then the Female Spiritual Principle came in the Snake, the Instructor, and it taught them, saying,' ... you shall not die; for it was out of jealousy that he said this to you. Rather, your eyes shall open, and you shall become like gods, recognizing evil and good.' ... And the arrogant Ruler cursed the Woman ... [and] ... the Snake.[9]"

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, Pg. 55-56
Vintage (September 19, 1989)
ISBN-10: 0679724532
ISBN-13: 978-0679724537

References:
[1]Cf. N.A. Dahl, 'the Gnostic Response: The Ignorant Creator', documentation prepared for the Nag Hammadi Section of the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, 1976.
[2]Hypostasis of the Archons 86.27-94.26,in NHL 153-8. Note that the citation is conflated from two separate variants of the story in 86.27-87.4 and 94.19-26; a third occurs in the same text at 94.34- 95.13.Cf.B.Layton, 'the Hypostasis of the Archons', in Harvard Theological Review 67 (1974),351 ff.
[3]On the Origin of the World 103.9-20, in NHL 165. For analysis of the texts, see F.L. Fallon, The Sabaoth Accounts in 'the Nature of the Archons' (CG11,4) and 'On the Origin of the World' (CG 11,5): An Analysis (Cambridge, 1974).
[4]Apocryphon of John 11.18-13.13, in NHL 105-6.
[5]Testimony of Truth 45.24-46.11, in NHL 411.
[6]ibid., 47.7-30, in NHL 412.
[7]See Excellent discussion by B.A. Pearson, 'Jewish Haggadic Traditions in the Testimony of Truth from Nag Hammadi, CG IX, 3', in Ex Orbe Religionum: Studia Geo Widengren oblata (Leiden, 1972), 458-70 [8]On the Origin of the World 115.31-116.8, in NHL 172.
[9]Hypostasis of the Archons 89.11-91.1, in NHL 154-5.

Amazon.com Review

Gnosticism's Christian form grew to prominence in the 2nd century A.D. Ultimately denounced as heretical by the early church, Gnosticism proposed a revealed knowledge of God ("gnosis"meaning"knowledge"In Greek), held as a secret tradition of the apostles. In The Gnostic Gospels, author Elaine Pagels suggests that Christianity could have developed quite differently if Gnostic texts had become part of the Christian canon. Without a doubt: Gnosticism celebrates God as both Mother and Father, shows a very human Jesus's relationship to Mary Magdalene, suggests the Resurrection is better understood symbolically, and speaks to self-knowledge as the route to union with God. Pagels argues that Christian orthodoxy grew out of the political considerations of the day, serving to legitimize and consolidate early church leadership. Her contrast of that developing orthodoxy with Gnostic teachings presents an intriguing trajectory on a world faith as it"might have become.”The Gnostic Gospels provides engaging reading for those seeking a broader perspective on the early development of Christianity. —F. Hall

Like Plato, they understood God as a transcendent Being far beyond the material world of chaos and death, a Being who relegated contact with the material world to lower angels.

Comments on the Translation - Chapter 13

"Then Saklas said to his angels, 'Let us create a human being [ac]cording to the likeness and according to the image.' Then they formed Adam and his wife, Eve. But in the cloud, she was called 'Zoe' ('Life'). For in this name all the races shall seek after it (life), and each one of them calls her by their names.

"But [Sa]klas did not com[mand .......] exce[pt ...........] the ra[ce]s [.........] this one [..............]. And the [ruler] said to him, 'Your life and that of your children will last (only) for a season.'"

Reading Judas: Gospel of Judas And The Shaping Of Christianity
[1]-[7] of Chapter 13

Comments:

Here we learn that it was Saklas and his angels who created humanity. They formed Adam and Eve according to the image and likeness of the divine world above. But because these erring angels are the"Gods"Who formed Adam and Eve, humanity lives under their rule and shares their character flaws and their mortal nature. Not only are people capable of unrighteousness and error; their lifespans are also limited, as Saklas told them: "Your life and that of your children will last (only) for a season.”It is likely that the missing portion of the text at 13:6 contained Saklas's command not to eat of the tree of paradise, following the story in 'Genesis' 2:15-17 and 3:1-24. There, God commands Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but when Eve and Adam do eat of it, God casts them out of paradise lest they should eat of the tree of life and live forever. The consequence in both 'Genesis' and the 'Gospel of Judas' is the same: All human beings now have limited lifespans.

This reading of 'Genesis' may seem to conflict with the literal meaning of the text, but it does solve several problems that ancient readers had, and it conforms to the highest philosophical standards of its time. Jews and Christians in this period were all struggling with certain problems in 'Genesis', notably the portrait of God as a limited being who"Walks in the garden in the cool of the day"And has to ask Adam and Eve where they were - as though he didn't know. They also had to account for the plural in 'Genesis' 1:26, where God says," let 'us' make humankind in 'our' image.”Who is this"We"If there is only one true God? Portraying the creator as Saklas and his angelic friends solved the problems for the author of the 'Gospel of Judas'.

Moreover, the 'Gospel of Judas' draws on the thinking of Plato and his followers. Offering his own version of the story of creation, Plato suggested that the transcendent God delegated the task of forming the material world to a lower creator, called the Demiurge, and to"The younger gods"Who were with him. In creating this world, they looked to the eternal, spiritual realm above and stamped its form upon the chaotic matter with which they had to work, giving order and beauty to all that they made. (P.158) The immortal souls of humans originally resided in the stars, a vantage point from which they could comprehend the whole cosmos. But when the lower gods placed them into human bodies, they forgot everything they had known before. Plato tells this story to teach his students what he sees as the goal of human life: to remember the truth about ourselves and our origin, so that when death releases the righteous soul from the prison of the body, it can return to the immortal stars and regain the knowledge of the universe that it originally had - the memory that we lost to oblivion when we were born into this world. [27]

The 'Gospel of Judas' - and indeed most Christian views of the universe - drew heavily upon the philosophy of Plato and his followers. Many Christians accepted the dualistic view that human beings are souls residing in physical bodies. Like Plato, they understood God as a transcendent Being far beyond the material world of chaos and death, a Being who relegated contact with the material world to lower angels.”

Reading Judas - The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity,
'Comments on the Translation', Pg. 119; 156-7
Elaine Pagels and Karen L. King
Penguin Group - London, England
ISBN 978-0-713-99984-6

[27] See Plato, atimaeus' 27d-30b; 37d; 41c-42e, in 'Plato', translated by R.G. Bury, Vol. IX, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929).

The serpent (Adi Kundalini) is a messenger from the true God

The Complete Guide To World Mysticism

Complete Guide To World Mysticism

“The supreme Gnostic heresy was to see Yahweh, the tribal deity of the Old Testament, as a false god—a vicious and foolish creator of an imperfect world. A Gnostic text called 'On the Origins of the World' writes of this false god hiding the real God both from others and from himself. The god of religion is not the God of the Gnostic mystics. A religion fixes God and defines his characteristics, but the real power of divinity is forever ineffable and can only be known through direct mystical experience, not creeds and dogmas. For the Gnostic mystics, all the villains of the Old Testament—Cain, Esau, the Sodomites—become heroes for resisting the presumptuous Yahweh. A text called The Testimony of Truth tells the story of Genesis from the serpent's point of view. The serpent is a messenger from the true God of divine wisdom; it comes not to tempt Adam and Eve, but to guide them away from the tyrannical Yahweh and towards a direct knowledge of the true reality.

For the Gnostics, Jesus is not the son of a partisan Jewish god, but the son of the true God who is the oneness that underlies all. He comes not to save people from offending against the rules laid down by an autocratic creator, but directly to reveal the transcendent truth. The true God of Jesus is beyond all ideas, and so can be equally pictured as both father and mother. A Gnostic text has God declaring:

I am the Thought that dwells in the Light. She who exists above all, I move in every creature. I am the Invisible One within the All. I am perfection. I am knowledge. I cry out in everyone and they know a seed dwells within them. I am androgynous. I am both Mother and Father., since I make love with myself. I am the womb that gives shape to All. I am the Glorious Mother.”

The Complete Guide to World Mysticism
Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, page 103-4
Publisher: Piatkus Books; New Ed edition (October 1998)
ISBN-10: 0749917768
ISBN-13: 978-0749917760

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

“Now what I have told you about Adam and Eve, we have found out, said by also John in his Gnostics book. It's very surprising. They always told you that Christ must have told you many things, but they are not in the Bible. So if you understand that this Adi Shakti came as a serpent — the Adi Kundalini part of Her — and told the Adam and Eve, especially Eve, that she should ask for the fruit of knowledge to be eaten. The reason I gave you is exactly written there, that the Mother power, the feminine power, didn't want Her children to live like animals without understanding what is the knowledge of the higher realms, not giving them chance to rise higher through their freedom and then to higher and higher awareness. It was the concern of The Mother.”

Shri Adi Shakti Puja Talk
Cabella, Italy, June 26, 1994

The Mysterious Kundalini

Manastvam Vyoma tvam Marudasi Marutsarathirasi,
Tvamapastvam Bhumistvayi parinatayam nahi param,
Tvameva Svatmanam parinamayitum visvavapusha
Chidanandakaram haramahishi-bhavena bibhrushe.

"O Devi! Thou art the mind, the sky, the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. Nothing is outside Thee on Thy transformation. Thou hast become Siva's consecrated queen to alter Thy own blissful conscious Form in the shape of the world.”

Kundalini, the serpent power or mystic fire, is the primordial energy or Sakti that lies dormant or sleeping in the Muladhara Chakra, the centre of the body. It is called the serpentine or annular power on account of serpentine form. It is an electric fiery occult power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter.

Kundalini is the cosmic power in individual bodies. It is not a material force like electricity, magnetism, centripetal or centrifugal force. It is a spiritual potential Sakti or cosmic power. In reality it has no form. The Sthula Buddhi and mind have to follow a particular form in the beginning stage. From this gross form, one can easily, understand the subtle formless Kundalini. Prana, Ahamkara, Buddhi, Indriyas, mind, five gross elements, nerves are all the products of Kundalini.

It is the coiled-up, sleeping Divine Sakti that lies dormant in all beings. You have seen in the Muladhara Chakra that there is Svayambhu Linga. The head of the Linga is the space where Sushumna Nadi is attached to the Kanda. This mysterious Kundalini lies face downwards at the mouth of Sushumna Nadi on the head of Svayambhu Linga. It has three and a half coils like a serpent. When it is awakened, it makes a hissing sound like that of a serpent beaten with a stick, and proceeds to the other Chakra through the Brahma Nadi, which is also called Chitra Nadi within Sushumna. Hence Kundalini is also called Bhujangini, serpent power. The three coils represent the three Gunas of Prakriti: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and the half represents the Vikritis, the modification of Prakriti.

Kundalini is the Goddess of speech and is praised by all. She Herself, when awakened by the Yogin, achieves for him the illumination. It is She who gives Mukti and Jnana for She is Herself that. She is also called Sarasvati, as She is the form of Sabda Brahman. She is the source of all Knowledge and Bliss. She is pure consciousness itself. She is Brahman. She is Prana Sakti, the Supreme Force, The Mother of Prana, Agni, Bindu, and Nada. It is by this Sakti that the world exists. Creation, preservation and dissolution are in Her. Only by her Sakti the world is kept up. It is through Her Sakti on subtle Prana, Nada is produced. While you utter a continuous sound or chant Dirgha Pranava ! (OM), you will distinctly feel that the real vibration starts from the Muladhara Chakra. Through the vibration of this Nada, all the parts of the body function. She maintains the individual soul through the subtle Prana. In every kind of Sadhana the Goddess Kundalini is the object of worship in some form or the other.

Kundalini Yoga
Sri Swami Sivananda

Disclaimer: Our material may be copied, printed and distributed by referring to this site. This site also contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the education and research provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance freedom of inquiry for a better understanding of religious, spiritual and inter-faith issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.