Religion in the New Age

All the great religions are experiencing rapid changes. In China there are signs that people are beginning to frequent churches and temples more, and this same process is also occurring in the USSR. In the case of Christianity, there are divisions; people are questioning, challenging.

Christianity, along with the other religions, is undergoing a process of purification, in that individuals are going to experience, for the first time, that Divinity is not ‘outside’ but situated ‘simultaneously’ in the heart and in the universe, in all of creation.

The Self is now beginning to experience its own, distinct identity. The One who sustains the Self and makes Him aware cannot be limited; He is universal. ‘‘No one has a hold on the Christ.’’ The Lord’s message is indivisible and applies to one and all: ‘‘If you are serving Me, I am everywhere.’’

There is really no contradiction between the different religions. Religions have been trapped through words and slogans into vying with each other. This competition will disappear and the essence will remain. Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists will all experience Oneness. Those who cling to old forms will create division after division. But these forms will eventually disappear.

This process is inevitable. Churches, mosques and temples will become meeting places, as well as centres where those in need can be helped by others.

A more inclusive religious consciousness will characterize the 21st century. President Arap Moi of Kenya will lay the foundation stone for a temple suited to this new consciousness in Kajadio. There, the symbols of all the great religions will be represented, and this temple will become a place of pilgrimage for people from neighbouring countries. ‘‘Kenya will be to Africa,’’ Maitreya says, ‘‘what Mecca is to Islam.’’ People of all religions will gather to pray there.

This kind of temple, dedicated to religions in the new age, will also be built in Montreal, London, and India. This does not constitute the establishment of a new religion, but rather, it is the creation of structures suited to the growing realization of brotherhood.

F: Is there not a contradiction between what you wrote in Maitreya’s Mission, Vol. I. ---- that Maitreya had come to found the New World Religion and to inspire a change in the world’spolitical/economic structures, and yet you have quoted Him as saying: ‘‘I have not come to found a new religion’’? (Oct. 1992)

BC: No, I do not think so. I have to qualify that and to explain it by an elucidation of what I mean and what He means by ‘‘religion.’’ He has not come to found a religion based on ideology, on belief. All religions today are based on belief structures: belief in this Teacher or that Teaching, these precepts and so on.

The New World Religion ---- it is given that name by the Master Djwhal Khul (who gave the Alice Bailey teaching) and I quoted it from Him ---- is used to describe a path which is not religious in the usual sense but for which we as yet have no name (except an esoteric one). It is the path of initiation, therefore a highly scientific religion (which seems a contradiction in terms), based not on belief ---- esotericism is not to do with theology or belief ---- but is a science, or a philosophy, or an art ---- it partakes of something of all those, and something of religion too.

It relates to evolution and what we understand by Reality, of God, of superconsciousness, or cosmos. Esotericism is a path, and as such you cannot call it a religion though there is religion in it because it is to do with that greater Reality which is also dealt with by religion. Maitreya is not going to enunciate a certain belief system that you have to accept to be in that religion. He will set the process in motion exoterically, on the outer physical plane, which at the moment exists only esoterically.

The first two initiations, at which Maitreya is the Initiator, will take place outwardly ---- at the moment they are always an inner experience; they will remain an inner experience but they will also take place outwardly on the physical plane. Maitreya will go from country to country and in the temples which will be set up in various countries

He will act as the Initiator for those ready for this experience. The first and second initiations of the five initiations, which complete the evolutionary course on this planet and make you a Master, will take place in this way. You can call that a new world religion if you like, it has been so called by the Master Djwhal Khul, but Maitreya Himself has said He has not come to found a new religion but to teach humanity the art of Self-realization.

The Master Djwhal Khul has written that the New World Religion will emerge out of Russia. As people from the various existing world religions fit themselves for the experience of initiation, they will go to the Mystery Schools, where they will be prepared for this great experience, the most sacred aspects of the New World Religion.

F: How do we know ‘your’ Christ is who you say he is and how do we know he is not someone who is trying to obtain some form of powerful position in the world with the purpose of world domination? (June 1987)

BC: This is a question often put to me by fundamentalist Christians. A tree is known by its fruit, and the Christ must be known by His words, His deeds, and, above all, His energy. If one man could achieve world domination (which, in today’s world, I very much doubt) then it could only be someone of the stature of the Christ.

The fundamentalists, of course, are afraid that Maitreya might be the ‘anti-Christ’, with which fallacy I have dealt many times, here and elsewhere. On the Day of Declaration, I submit, everyone ---- even the fundamentalists ---- will know, through the overshadowing of the minds of all humanity ---- a pentecostal experience for all ---- that Maitreya is the Christ.

Source: Benjamin Creme, Maitreya's Mission Vol. Two, Seite 221 – 222 and 237 – 239

Maitreya's hand (with explanation)