The Beatitudes - Matthew 5:1-12 Part I Swami Prabhavananda

Before the time came for Jesus to give his Sermon on the Mount, he traveled all over Galilee preaching. "And his fame went throughout all Syria," as St. Matthew said. The news spread of an extraordinary teacher, and crowds gathered to see him––as they have done for thousands of years in the Orient and still do at the approach of a God-man. They journeyed "from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan." And Jesus taught the multitude according to its capacity; but his Sermon, which contains his highest teachings, he reserved for his disciples, for the ones who were spiritually ready. He took them to a hillside where they would not be interrupted by those who wanted less than his supreme truth.

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: And when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,...

Every spiritual teacher, whether he is a divine incarnation or an illumined soul, has two sets of teachings––one for the multitude, the other for his disciples. The elephant has two sets of teeth: The tusks with which he defends himself from external difficulties and the teeth with which he eats. The spiritual teacher prepares the way for his message with broad lessons––with his tusks, as it were. The inner truth of religion he reveals only to his intimate disciples. For religion is something which can actually be transmitted. A truly illumined teacher can transmit to us the power which unfolds the divine consciousness latent within us. But the field must be fertile and the soil ready before the seed can be sown.

When crowds came on Sundays to visit Sri Ramakrishna, the most widely revered mystic of modern India, he would speak to them in a general way which benefitted them. But when his intimate disciples gathered around him, as I was told by one of them, he would make sure that he was not overheard while giving them the sacred truths of religion. Not that the truths themselves are secret––they are recorded, and anyone can read them. But what he gave to these disciples was more than verbal teachings. In a divine mood, he would uplift their consciousness.

(To be continued in September, 2006 issue)

© "The Sermon on the Mount according to Vedanta" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by The Vedanta Society of Southern California, 1946 Vedanta Place, Hollywood, California 90068, USA. Reprinted with permission.

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