ALL of us were ORIGINALLY created and born into one of
the upper Spiritual Planes of Heaven. In general, we were
SELFISH, LAZY, IMMATURE, and IN-EXPERIENCED there. So God
sent us down here for a long series of incarnations and
RE-INCARNATIONS between the Physical Plane (Pinda) and the
Psychic Planes (Astral Plane, Causal Plane, Mental Plane, and
Etheric Plane), and the numerous SUB-planes within each of
these major planes, for the purposes of gaining EXPERIENCE,
building CHARACTER, and learning the importance of SERVICE to
OTHERS, to become a SERVANT of Life and a CO-WORKER with God.
To help us accomplish this training, God created and
assigned to us a SCHOOLMASTER, who rules over ALL of the
Psychic Planes and the Physical Plane, BELOW the Soul Plane
and higher Spiritual Planes. Christians know him as the
Devil, Satan, Lucifer, etc.. He is also known as Kal
Niranjan, or simply the Negative Power. It is his God-given
DUTY to use clever tricks to keep us IMPRISONED here in the
lower worlds for extended training.
God also provided us with an easy way of ESCAPE from the
MISERABLE and seeming ENDLESS cycles of births, deaths, and
rebirths. All a person has to do to obtain this Salvation is
to find, and seriously accept Initiation from, a PHYSICALLY-
LIVING Divine Master, and then daily do some of the various
suggested spiritual contemplation exercises. (A TRUE Divine
Master is one who tunes his Initiates into the Sound Current,
the Audible Life Stream, referred to as "The Word" in John
1:1-5.) When the Initiate physically dies, s/he will go
DIRECTLY to at least the Soul Plane and will NEVER AGAIN have
to REincarnate into ANY Physical or Psychic Plane of existence.
One such PHYSICALLY-LIVING Divine Master is an American,
Sri Harold Klemp, the Living ECK Master, or Mahanta, for the
Eckankar organization, now headquartered in Minneapolis (P.O.
Box 27300, zip 55427; 1-800-568-3463; www.eckankar.org).
Another Divine Master alive today is Maharaj Gurinder
Singh Ji of the Sant Mat organization, now living in Punjab,
India. There are others. However, Eckankar has some
important ADVANTAGES over these others, including fewer
restrictions on life style, less daily time required for
spiritual comtemplation exercises, and the ability of
Initiates to work off negative karma during the DREAM STATE
where it won't disrupt the Initiate's outer physical life.
It should be emphasized that one can NOT obtain this
Salvation from a DEPARTED Divine Master, such as Jesus
Christ, who is NOT now physically alive, NOR will be again.
THIS IS SIMPLY THE WAY GOD SET THINGS UP IN THE UNIVERSES.
Therefore, ALL Christians, as well as ALL Muslims, Hindus,
Buddhists, etc., WILL CONTINUE to REincarnate.
Quoted from "The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Book One" (the
Eckankar Bible), pages 95-96 (1987 Edition):
"A vital difference exists between the Mahanta and a
departed Master [such as Jesus Christ]. The chela cannot
follow a Master who has left this plane and gone into the
other worlds. The departed one cannot initiate anyone on the
spiritual path. He has nothing now to do with the earth
world....
"No child can get nourishment from a deceased mother,
nor a sick man from a departed doctor. The Masters of the
past ages have left this field of action and so their work
here is finished.... The SUGMAD [God] cannot instruct, or
give man the needed help on the upward path, without the
Mahanta in human form to act as his instrument and
spokesman....
"Those who cling to a Master [such as Jesus Christ] who
has been translated from this earth are in error. He is not
dead, but he has left the field of action in this region of
matter. He is no longer in touch with humanity; his work is
elsewhere. The discipleship of the chela must change to the
successor."
Books containing several kinds of evidence supporting
REincarnation, and the related LAW of RETRIBUTION or KARMA
(Galatians 6:7, Revelation 13:10, etc.), can be found in most
bookstores and libraries. One of the best of these books is
"Here and Hereafter" by Ruth Montgomery. See also the book
"Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives", by
hypnotherapist Dr. Micheal Newton, Ph.D., 4th edition, 1995;
but note that this book's references to the "spiritual
realms" are actually LIMITED to the PSYCHIC Planes.
The CLASSIC original Eckankar books are: "ECKANKAR: The
Key to Secret Worlds", "The Tiger's Fang", and "The Spiritual
Notebook", all three written by Paul Twitchell.
For more information, answers to your questions, etc.,
please consult my CITED SOURCES.
UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this
IMPORTANT Information is ENCOURAGED, ESPECIALLY to COMPUTER
BULLETIN BOARDS.
Robert E. McElwaine
2nd Initiate in Eckankar