Jesus and the Pharisees
As soon as the Supreme Lord appeared to him, Jesus was cleansed of all material contamination and elevated to his original spiritual position as the Celestial Christ. With mystic vision, he could see the entire situation clearly, as if from above. Jesus could see many high priests, rabbis, Pharisees―elders as respectable as his father and grandfathers, teachers, uncles, brothers, sons, grandsons, friends, and other relatives who would normally be well-wishers, within the party of his enemies—all full of hatred and ready to kill him.
Jesus could clearly see the hatred in the hearts of his enemies, but he did not hate them. And he could also see the fear and unsteadiness in the hearts of his disciples, although they were under the Lord’s protection. This situation was giving him grief, because in both cases it was an illusion due to the influence of ignorance. The Pharisees were the religious scholars of the Jews. They wanted to protect their aristocratic position in Jewish society against the popular movement started by Jesus. Therefore they hated Jesus, although there was no offense on his part. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Jesus had no desire to fight with his fellow Jews, but since the rabbis and Pharisees were never agreeable to any peaceful negotiation, he was forced to preach against them by their very obstinacy. It was an open secret that there was a conspiracy among the rabbis, in collaboration with the local Roman government, to entrap Jesus by evil plans.
Jesus wanted to educate everyone in transcendental knowledge, and thus share the bliss of his enlightenment. But demoniac people are always against spiritual advancement, though they may be in the dress of so-called pious priests, rabbis or other religious authorities and government officials. They made a false case against Jesus, a pure devotee, a genuine representative of God, and sought to entrap him by a conspiracy of counterfeit arguments. All this gave rise to distress within Jesus’ heart, due to compassion. Of course, Jesus’ enemies could not comprehend that he and his sincere disciples inevitably would be victorious over their evil plan by the Lord’s grace. The Pharisees were so proud of their temporal power and ignorant of real spiritual Truth that they would not accept the Lord’s representative, even though he personally appeared before them. Why then did Jesus grieve for them?
In the Secret Teachings of Jesus, the pure devotee is referred to as ‘One who conquers sleep.’ Sleep also means ignorance. So Jesus conquered both sleep and ignorance because of his being the transcendental son of the Lord. As a great devotee of the Lord, he could not forget the Lord even for a moment, because that is the nature of the devotee. Either waking or in sleep, a devotee of the Lord is always thinking of the Lord’s Holy Name, form, abode, qualities and pastimes. And this God consciousness is the source of the highest transcendental ecstasy. Thus a devotee of the Lord can conquer both sleep and ignorance simply by thinking of the Lord constantly. In the language of the Secret Teachings of Jesus this is called God consciousness, or Christ consciousness.
As the Director of the senses and mind of every living entity, the Lord could understand Jesus’ purpose in calling Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. As the Supersoul of all living entities, the Lord could understand everything in Jesus’ mind and heart. As a Father, He wanted to comfort His transcendental son Jesus, and assure him that there was no cause for distress. But He was also concerned about Jesus’ expressed doubts. Did Jesus want to stop there and not go on with executing the Lord’s plan? The Lord never expected such things from his transcendental son. The Lord, who can understand the psychic activities of all beings, thus predicated His teaching in the Garden that night on the conflicting thoughts within Jesus’ mind.
Jesus, seeing his Jewish friends and relatives conspiring against him in such a perverted spirit of animosity, felt symptoms of transcendental anxiety out of compassion for their spiritual blindness. Anyone who has genuine devotion to the Lord has all the good qualities found in Godly persons; whereas the non-devotees, however advanced they may be in material qualifications by education and culture, lack all good spiritual qualities beginning with truthfulness, compassion and loving kindness. Jesus could understand that his kinsmen, though intelligent and learned, were devoid of God consciousness and had ignorantly become enemies of his mission. As such, he was overwhelmed by compassion for these fools who had declared war against their own real interest in life. As far as his disciples were concerned, he was naturally sympathetic. But Jesus felt deep compassion even for the opposing party, foreseeing their imminent destruction and the terrible punishment they would have to undergo for their offenses.
Jesus was simply astonished to see the animosity of the rabbis and Pharisees. Practically the whole Jewish aristocratic community, all blood relatives of Jesus, had conspired to stop his preaching mission. This overwhelmed a kind devotee like Jesus. Such symptoms in Jesus were actually not due to weakness but to his kindheartedness, an important characteristic of a pure devotee of the Lord. One who has unflinching devotion for the Personality of Godhead has all the good qualities of the archangels and more. But one who is not a devotee of the Lord has only material qualifications that are of little value. This is because he is hovering on the mental plane without spiritual engagement, and therefore is certain to be attracted by the glare of the material energy and entrapped in an endless regress of material desire and frustration.