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Beloved Children:

You, who have responded through the veil of flesh and through the vibratory action of the outer Consciousness to the magnetic pull of our Hearts and you who have bared your souls to the vital Rays of Truth, are blessed among the sons and daughters of men. 

Today, it is my pleasure to give you a short digest of the addresses on Religion and its relation to man's spiritual evolution as presented by various Members of the Brotherhood at the Kashmiri Retreat while that august assembly was in session recently. 

What, truly, is Religion? Is it an opiate for the weary senses wherein the seeming reality of the distresses of the outer world may be for the moment - forgotten? 

No, Religion is based on a seven-fold principle and mankind for the most part, including conscious students of the Law and even advanced chelas have not fully understood its seven-fold nature. 

In its journey back to God, the soul passes through each of the Seven Rays: 

Surfeited with the enjoyments of the senses and impelled by the Divine Teacher within the heart it at last comes to its knees before its Creator and here you have the action of the First Ray in the invocation of the befuddled consciousness to learn the Will of God. 

The soul next passes into the radiation of the Second Ray, and learns the Law of Cause and Effect through the recoil of its own energy which is the pleasure or pain occasioned by the qualification of the life given into its charge. A little later, under this Ray, the Divine Design of the Hierarchy is explained and the place where each individual belongs in the Great Plan. It is the Place of Illumination when, after asking the Will of God the Revelation of the Divine Scheme of things is presented to the earnest soul. 

Then, through the portals of the Third Ray the aspirant passes and under its radiation he endeavors to make his understanding of practical value to his fellowman, developing tolerance, understanding and a sincere, deep interest in the spiritual grows and welfare of the race to which he belongs. 

He then passes into the Fourth Sphere, and, looking upon the sordidness and distortion of the life principle which has become his body and environment, he recognizes the truth that Beauty, Harmony and Perfection are God Ordained as part of the religion of awakened man, and he begins through the molding of his thought, the purifying power of feeling and the direction of the Sacred Fire to externalize that which should be a credit and example to all life. 

In the Fifth Sphere - following the same pattern - he passes to the Illumined Understanding of the mathematical accuracy that lies within creation, precipitation, etherialization and levitation and all these powers called mystic by the mind of the undisciplined. 

He next passes into the Sixth Sphere, having received within himself the Gifts that all the preceding Rays have offered him and here he kneels, but this time in thanksgiving and devotion for the gifts of Life. Then the Hosannas rise from the hearts and lips - the Aves fill the atmosphere and - "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" becomes the illumined heart prayer of the initiate of the Sixth Temple. 

Having expressed his gratitude to God through devotion to his Christ Self, to the Angelic Host, to the Masters of Wisdom and to his fellow men - he is then ready to pass on into the Seventh and Final Activity of his religion - whether he be Moslem, Jew, Christian, Metaphysician or I AM student - whatever label he gives to his religion - he then enters the Seventh Sphere. 

Here, in the Seventh Sphere, the Words of the Master Jesus ring through his consciousness - "Hitherto the Father worketh - but now the Father and I work"- and all of these Gifts of energy - all of the Teachings of the Brotherhood and all of the Beauty and Sacrifice, Illumination and Devotion gained by the lifestream in its journey through the preceding Spheres now become his responsibility to offer on the Altar of Humanity, in ordered service which is the watchword of Saint Germain, Chohan of the Seventh Ray or Sphere in which the spiritual traveler now finds himself. 

In this Seventh Sphere knowing the Will of God, illumined by Understanding, loving his fellow-man, the elemental and Angelic kingdoms filled with the beauty and opulence which is his birthright understanding the powers of centripetal and centrifugal force heeding the cry that comes from the hearts of the brothers and sisters still in bondage and answering that cry with hearts overflowing with good not with the lips but through the feelings that is the man through whom the Ceremonial Worship of the Seventh and Final Ray shall be effected. 

Next week we shall talk a little more on the nature of Religion and what is expected of the mature man in return for the assiduous care on the part of the Celestial Hierarchy in guiding his footsteps through the various Spheres necessary for his spiritual development. 

Blessings and Love,

MAHA CHOHAN

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