What Really Happened While the Disciples Were Asleep?
Most people have heard the story of Jesus and his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. The core teaching of this familiar account from the Gospels is that when in difficulty, one should approach the spiritual Master Teacher or God to pray for advice and inspiration. The Lord will respond, either directly or through the spiritual Master Teacher, resolving the sincere disciple’s difficulty. This tenet is actually an integral part of the Esoteric Teaching, the original spiritual source from which all the bona fide religions in the world are derived. Therefore it is universally relevant to all Godly people, regardless of their doctrinal orientation or level of attainment in self-realization.
However, this pastime also contains a much more profound meaning. There is a clue to its deeper layer of significance in the fact that Jesus’ disciples could not remain awake while he prayed. The unenlightened person can hardly appreciate the personal presence of God, or the timeless secret teachings He reveals when He appears in this world. As the Lord states in His Esoteric Teaching, “The time of awakening for the self-realized soul is night for ordinary beings.” Therefore, although a spiritual event of universal significance was happening right before them, the neophyte disciples who later recorded Jesus’ life in the Gospels and started the original Christian religion could not remain alert.
They slept despite the fact that God was present, engaged in an intense personal dialog with His son and intimate disciple Jesus Christ. This inattention is revealed in the Gospels; or rather, in what is omitted from the Gospels. After all, the writers could not possibly have recorded what was happening while they were asleep. Therefore in the Gospels’ version of the story, Jesus goes from protesting “My Father, all things are possible for You, take this cup from me,” to capitulating, “Yet, not as I will, but as You will,” in a single verse [Luke 22:42].
A great soul like Jesus does not so easily doubt the order of the Lord, which is his life and soul. If Jesus had doubts (“Take this cup”), they must have been significant. Significant doubts are not easily erased. One gets the feeling that a lot of dialog is absent from the Biblical narration; indeed, the Lord’s side of the conversation is completely missing. Except for a brief mention of the appearance of the Lord of Heaven to Jesus, only statements and actions of Jesus appear in the Gospels.
This is consistent with the observation that the disciples were inattentive and unaware of God’s presence. They were dozing, and only half awoke when Jesus cried out to his Father in prayer. Alas, the Gospels, for all their beauty and value, are not perfect; they omit many important pastimes of Jesus. Another glaring dereliction is the entire story of Jesus’ young manhood. The Gospels narrate a few precious pastimes of Jesus as a child, and then suddenly skip to his preaching activities as a grown man. Twenty years or so are utterly missing from the Gospels’ account of Jesus’ life.
However, this is not the case with other records. The Secret Teachings of Jesus narrate Jesus’ early travels throughout the ancient world, notably to Egypt and India, where he took instruction and received initiation and recognition from many spiritual authorities. Not surprisingly, the Secret Teachings of Jesus contain a similar, but more complete version of the Gethsemane story as well.
After the Last Supper
The Gospels’ version of the story begins just after the Last Supper, when the disciples followed Jesus out into the countryside to pray:
And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. [Luke 22:39-46 KJV]
There are many important lessons to be learned from this Gospel story. The age-old custom of those in the spiritual and renounced orders of life is to seek the shelter of nature’s pure atmosphere for spiritual activities. The cities, towns and villages are always more or less polluted by people’s sinful activities of selfish sense gratification. For this reason Jesus’ initiating spiritual Master Teacher, John the Baptist, refused to enter the towns even for preaching purposes. He used to remain outside the town walls in the pasturing grounds (eremo in the original Greek), and the people had to come out to see him. Therefore after the Last Supper, Jesus wanted to leave the contaminated atmosphere of the town and commune with God in the purity of the countryside, without the distracting influences of material sense gratification and sinful life.
Spiritual life has nothing to do with bodily sense gratification; indeed, the two are mutually exclusive. One cannot work hard to maintain the values of bodily enjoyment and at the same time become a self-realized or God-realized soul. That is contradictory. Spiritual life means the renunciation of gross bodily pleasures as far as possible, and realization of a higher source of pleasure in relationship with God and His pure devotees. This is actual spiritual life. It is not dry, it is full of pleasure—but that pleasure is on the spiritual platform, not the bodily platform. Jesus is the prototype of a renunciant. He is not at all interested in material pleasure, for he has realized a higher source of pleasure in loving devotional service to the Lord. His greatest joy is in sharing his special relationship with God. In this story we find a perfect instance of the spiritual relationship of mutual love, surrender and service between the devotee and the Lord.
One should therefore study the confidential Secret Teachings of Jesus very carefully—if possible, with the help and guidance of a self-realized devotee of the Lord—and try to understand it without blind doctrinal criticism or personally motivated misinterpretations. The example of proper understanding is illustrated in the way Jesus accepted instruction directly from the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, transforming his initial lamentation and hesitation into joyful, enthusiastic surrender. If someone is fortunate enough to understand the Secret Teachings of Jesus without twisting it to justify his personal desires, then he surpasses all conventional religious studies and ordinary Scriptural wisdom. One will find in the stories and parables of the Secret Teachings of Jesus all that is contained in the ordinary teachings of religion, but the deeply inquiring reader will also find much wisdom not to be found anywhere else. That is the specific standard of the Secret Teachings of Jesus. It is the perfect theistic science because the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supreme Lord, directly speaks it for the pleasure and benefit of His devotees.