THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 43 -
The religious union of India and China.
1
(Raphael) "You see, above India, on the other side of the highest mountains on this Earth, there is another very large empire which encompasses at least five times as many people as the Roman one. All those people have almost the same religion as the Indians. They live in the greatest peace and order, are very temperate, sober, frugal, hard-working, assiduous and full of the blindest obedience towards their teachers and leaders, and their emperor is their complete lord and ensures most vigilantly that a stranger can never penetrate anywhere into his great land. For this purpose his whole land, wherever it has flatter borders, is cut off from the neighbouring lands of the Earth by a most colossal wall, over which no hostile army might force its way. At the same time this wall is equipped with towers, inside of which a strong guard is on constant look-out, and which is strong enough to turn back most decidedly any foreign approach.
2
Only a messenger of the Brahma (Brau ma = is right) from upper India has the entitled right once a year to go over this wall into the land, because he, the bearer of praise, or likewise of rebuke, from the Lama, has to bring it directly to the emperor himself in a heavy, golden box. This messenger, in fact, comes with a great and shining entourage up to the wall at the designated time to the designated spot and begins to make a great noise down below. At this a basket is let down from the high wall. Only the messenger alone may get into the basket in which he is then lifted up; his entourage however must wait there until the messenger has come back again.
3
But the messenger is carried for the long distance of some twenty days' travel away from the wall in a palanquin, out of which he can see nothing but the sky. Only in the great imperial city, which has more inhabitants than the whole of Palestine, is his foot set freely on the ground and he is led to the emperor with all honour. There he hands over the golden box with its contents and lets the emperor know the desire of the great Lama, at which he is handsomely rewarded and released in mercy. Then his return journey immediately begins again, which always resembles the previous journey there to a T.
4
At such a journey of a messenger from God to the emperor and from the emperor back home again a large number of people always stream out onto the street along which the messenger of God, who of course does not get to see anyone except the trusted palanquin bearers while getting in and out, is being carried to the emperor with indescribably great ceremony.
5
If you ask the people why they never get to see the messenger of God, and even less to speak to him, the people, quite full of the highest humility, will answer you this: such a demand would be an unforgivable sin. It is already the mercy of the great God in highest abundance that they can see from far away the holy messenger of the great God being carried, through which everyone who sees a little receives so much blessing that it well suffices in abundance for another ten times a hundred thousand other people of the great empire, which they believe is situated exactly in the middle of the world. Well, that is taught to the innocent people, and they believe in it as firmly as rock.
6
Indeed, the messenger himself also knows about this belief; but he knows something else, namely that that he is not allowed to see the land and its on pain of death, in order not to possibly betray it in some way. For treason is the highest crime in this land, which is immediately punished in the most severe way, even for a hardly noticeable little thing. But the people of this empire are nonetheless very loyal, true and extremely obedient, despite all their foolishness. Can you be annoyed if the people are kept in their foolishness and tended by the leaders and are very happy, even if the emperor and his first servants secretly know something quite different? Or is that all not just like your order of Essenes? Is God unwise and unjust then if He allows and tolerates all this, as long as the people remain full of patience and humility, and if He also tolerates you lascivious Essenes? Speak now, my friend, if you now have something to object!"