The spirit of man is the exact replica of the Force, God, from which he sprang. In fact, he is God expressing Himself in the physical worlds and higher dimensions. This may seem preposterous and even sacrilegeous to many, but only because we have been taught a very different concept of the Deity, a God that watches over us from high above and attends to the needs of all those who consider themselves His faithful servants.

Stemming from the the misconceptions and misinterpretations of the first centuries, that concept has been kept alive and has found powerful allies in all religious communities of the world that used it to maintain a strong hold on their flock and, through fear and subordination, prevent those who were dissatisfied and thought otherwise, from initiating their own personal search.

A long time ago, a man dared challenge this concept, a man whose mission was to show mankind the power that they, themselves, represented as an expression of God on earth. This man, Jesus, dared challenge the concept of a personal God held by the Jewish communities of the time. Times and again, he tried to convey that idea that we were, as he was himself, sons and daughters of God and heirs to the Kingdom, but he was misunderstood, even by the Apostles who were rather awed by the powers this Master manifested before their very eyes.

The parable of the prodigal son is the one that comes closest to this new concept that we are all manifestations and expressions of God on earth, and not, as we have been taught, mere creatures of that God, earthworms that return to dust because it is our destiny and the only means to finally see Him face to face.

In very clear terms for those who open their hearts, the parable reminds us that our true abode is the Kingdom of the Father; that we were originally roaming and exploring the Cosmos that He created; that it is of our own doing if we are not now in full possession and control of those faculties that would allow us to see and enjoy the Kingdom that is there and has never been apart from us.

It also refutes the concept of a partial and avenging God who favors his people and destroys his enemies. That is a materialistic concept, still held by the great religions and the new christian communities that have sprung here and there in the past 20th century.

There was once a man who had two sons, and the younger one said to him ‘Father give me my share of the property now’ .

In that first sentence of the parable, Jesus is addressing the concept of the Chosen people that the Jewish people had been holding to for centuries, concept that gave them (or so they thought) a very special status with regards to God. Thus , in Jesus’ mind, the younger son represented the Samaritans and the Gentiles, and the older brother, all those Jews who thought of themselves as the chosen people, and all other races who considered their religion as the only true religion. In the eyes of Jesus, that was a misunderstanding of the nature of God, a very materialistic and selfish approach to spirituality and a deterrent to any further progress beyond the tridimensional plane we live in.

We come from the Source. We fell from the Source, that is, we became so materialistically minded and earthbound, that we forgot where we came from. Thus atrophying our spiritual senses instead of always holding the Divine Thought in our hearts, we became hypnotized by our own thought forms from which sprang two detrimental and false concepts: we are alone in the universe; death is the natural outcone and the final stage of the human body.

Jesus had come into the world to teach exactly the opposite, and not only teach, for times and again, he showed his disciples and the people that it is possible to heal the body and trancend death here and now. He exemplified it when he cured diseases and awakened Lazarus who was already dead. Transforming his human body into the etheric form that all saw on Easter Sunday and afterwards, the Master proved that man can transcend physical limitations and express the power of the God he is in reality.

Death is unnatural. It is, however, the ‘natural outcome’ of wrong thinking and the consequence of not obeying the spiritual laws that are part of the cosmos and an intrinsic part of the form we put on at birth in order to experience life in the physical. Entwined within the law of cause and effect, these laws keep a careful watch on our thoughts and actions, imprinting on the etheric body whatever needs to be changed and improved, in order to attain the balance of body, mind and spirit. This is why it is so important to emphasize the fact that what we do to others, we do, in reality, to ourselves.

He (the prodigal son) went to a country far away where he wasted his money in reckless living. He spent everything he had. Then a severe famine spread over that country and he was left without a thing. So he went to work for one of the citizens of that country who sent him out to his farm, to take care of the pigs. He wish he could feed himself with the bean pods the pigs ate, but no one gave him anything to eat.

In this imagery, the son represents all mankind that, long ago, left the kingdom of their Father for the gross material of physical life, thus losing sight of their goal and atrophying their perceptions to the point where they could no longer communicate with the Source.

Isn’t this reminiscent of physical life? The ‘country’ is the physical world and the reckless living is all those talents that we waste in idle pursuits, this desire to become rich and richer, thus creating the imbalance that we find now in our present societies of the world. C ompared to the riches of the Kingdom, we are, indeed, eating the bean pods the pigs eat! Compared to a begotten son of God, the richest man in the world is, indeed, the poorest man of the cosmos, because he acquired the bean pods when he could have it all, health, riches and happiness.

At last he came to his senses and said, ‘All my father’s hired workers have more than they can eat, and here I am about to starve! I will get up and go to my father and say, Father I have sin against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired workers. So he got up and started back to his father.

That is the long journey the Master undertook when he incarnated as Jesus the Nazarene. Living the life of a carpenter and scorning the riches of the world, he began the long search that drove him back to the Father. Even though he traveled to far away countries, it is within the self that he found what he was looking for. There he discovered he did not need to eat the bean pods left by the pigs when all the riches of the world were at his disposal, right there within the temple of the body. From that inner inexhaustible source, he could draw anything he wanted, from the power to heal the sick to the manna that multiplied the bread and fishes and fed the thousands of people that had followed him. From that source, he could decorporate at will and reconstruct the cells of the body wherever he wanted, be it in the next town or at the confines of the universe.

He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity, and he ran and threw his arms round his son and kissed him. ‘Father’ the son said, ‘I have sin against God and against you. I am no longer fit to be called your son.’ But the Father called his servants. ‘Hurry,’ he said, ‘Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet. Then go and get the prize calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast! For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive. He was lost and now he has been found’. And so the feasting began.

Christian religions have taught us that Jesus was the only begotten son of God. They have impressed on our mind the idea that we were mere servants of God and Jesus was our only hope and passageway to heaven. Why and how such a concept found its way in Christianity is very difficult to understand after all the teachings Jesus gave when he taught those who were chosen to spread the Word. He may have spoken in parables when he adressed the multitudes, but he expressed himself in very clear terms when in the company of the disciples, even though many of them found it hard to accept a concept that went agaisnt everything they had been taught in the synagogues of the time.

That story of the prodigal son is the closest allegory to explain the true nature of man and his relationship to the Father. It is the relation of man’s journey in the physical and his final return to the Kingdom he had left when he fell from grace and entered the gross vibration of materiality. Just like the prodigal son, we have been away from home for a very long time, but now we are beginning to understand that God is not so far away as we had thought, and He is right there within the temple of the body. Just like the father of the story, He is filled with joy and pride at the thought of this reunion and ready to throw His arms around each of His sons and daughters that are coming back to Him.

The elder brother was so angry that he would not go into the house; so his father came out and begged him to come in. But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years, I have worked for you like a slave, and I have never disobeyed your orders. What have you given me?. Not even a goat for me to have a feast with my friends! But this son of yours wasted all your property on prostitutes, and when he comes back home, you kill the prize calf for him! ‘My son,’ the father answered, ‘ you are always here with me and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.’

Jesus adresses that last paragraph of the parable to those who live a good life and obey the laws, but cannot understand why God would bestow upon the repentant criminals and sinners, the same favours He bestows on them. Thus the parable teaches us that God does not discriminate between His children. In His eyes, there are no sinners or murderers, only wandering children that voluntarily cut themselves from the Source. And that Source awaits their return and prepares a feast in their honor. Therefore, it is important to understand that one must never judge anyone and forgiveness is the best cure for any disease, whether it is of the mind or the body.

That is the lesson Jesus tried to teach the disciples and their followers. We are all wanderers. We all left our Father’s house and although life on earth is worthwhile, it is nevertheless the bean pods the pigs ate, compared to the abundance and unlimited power that awaits us in the cosmic Kingdom of God.