Er Rajan C Mathew: Finding the Spiritual Realities
I am a technical manager in one of the largest govt companies in India with nearly three decades of professional work experience in this company in various capacities. By education and training, I am a chemical engineer, with work experience and interest in water and waste water engineering.
I have been born and brought up in a Syrian Christian family of Kerala and have always been maintaining the relationship as a member of my church. During my youth days some atheistic view points had entered in my mind, but later my intelligent mind discarded those thoughts and I have been a firm believer of a super intelligent God behind everything. I had got the opportunity to understand the religious concepts of Hinduism, Islam and others, though not very deeply, in addition to those of my own religion- Christianity. Of all these, Christianity appealed to me as comparatively more logical and acceptable to an intelligent mind.
But, even on a casual approach, I could see that there were many contradictions in the Bible and I was a bit confused with the stand taken by many of theChristian teachers and believers about the verbatim truthfulness of Bible as a whole and that it is the true word of God.
The Bible presented the concept that God is Love, but there existed long depictions of God inspired violence, war and God as the God of Armies.
But at the same time the teachings of Jesus Christ as given in the Bible gave a different picture.
So in the recent past, I have been using my spare time to surf the internet to find out what the net savvy people say on these.
Then quite unexpectedly, the Truthbook site and The Urantia Book came to my vision.
It is just a month ago.
I was overwhelmed as I glanced at these presentations- I have not yet read all the papers, but only a few. Every word of those I read, was logical and acceptable to my intelligence, though my limited brain could not comprehend the vast knowledge it presented, with one reading.
No one in this part of theworld, to my knowledge, has known the existence of this marvellous revelation of truth, yet.
I wonder whether there could be similar ones like me who could be in fellowship to study this book and enhance our lives by true knowledge under the everloving presence of the UNIVERSAL FATHER, guidance of Jesus Christ and the hosts of the spiritual worlds.
Yours with Love,
Er Rajan C Mathew
Bhilai
India.
The Urantia Book p1141:6 103:9.8
The full realization of the reality of mortal life consists in a progressive willingness to believe these assumptions of reason, wisdom, and faith. Such a life is one motivated by truth and dominated by love; and these are the ideals of objective cosmic reality whose existence cannot be materially demonstrated.
The Urantia Book p1141:7 103:9.9
When theology masters religion, religion dies; it becomes a doctrine instead of a life. The mission of theology is merely to facilitate the self-consciousness of personal spiritual experience. Theology constitutes the religious effort to define, clarify, expound, and justify the experiential claims of religion, which, in the last analysis, can be validated only by living faith. In the higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man's highest human attainments. Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, spiritual experience.
The Urantia Book p1141:4 103:9.6
[ I have quoted the above said lines only to show to you the intellectual wisdom and the superior authority marinated with graceful love to the receivers or the readers that are apparently embedded in the language]
B. Know More about this Book- what I have learned
1. How The Urantia Book Came into Existence
By William S. Sadler, Jr., February 18, 1962
[The following is transcribed from a tape recording made in the home of Berkeley Elliott on February 18,1962 in Oklahoma City in the U.S.A. On this occasion, William S. Sadler, Jr., one of the "contact commissioners," was talking with the study group there assembled. What follows are comments which he made on this occasion concerning the origin of The Urantia Book.]
"Many years ago my parents, who were physicians, had brought to their attention a man who had some rather strange things happening to him. In one of the books my father wrote, "TheMind atMischief", he made mention of this case in the last part of the book -- in the Appendix which was published in the 1920's. My father had spookhunting as a hobby. He was an exposer of mediums. He had two partners in this endeavor -- the head of the psychology department at Northwestern University and Howard Thurston, a professional magician. There is a book now out of print which my father wrote called "The Truth About Spiritualism" in which he puts so-called spiritualists as falling into one of two categories. There are practicing frauds -- deliberately working for gain or for glory -- and there are people who are self-deceived. I think in that book he says "with one possible exception."
"My parents, both physicians [Dr. and Mrs. Sadler], became interested in this case. This man would go to sleep and he'd talk and what came out was intriguing and different. He was never interested in the lost watch or the stock market or in talking with your Uncle George who had passed on -- never anything practical. This was different; distinctly odd. About this time a Sunday evening meeting came to be organized at our house. It came about when Popwas giving a commencement address at a local university. I was in High School at the time and he wrote me a letter saying that we were not church people but that Sunday should be productive aswell as a day of rest. He asked what I would say if they invited in some friends and they had a discussion group -- kind of a forum -- and talked about health and history and politics, etc. That group came into existence in, I think, 1922. This group became interested in spiritualismbecause Pop was writing on that subject at the time.
"My dad was mischievous -- there was a mind-reading vaudeville show in town. Pop attended twice. He took a pair of wire cutters and clipped the wires that hooked the guy in the audience with the gal on the stage. At which point she fainted and they asked if there was a doctor in the audience, and Pop had the gall to go back and take care of her.
"The question came up whether all such phenomena is fraudulent. My dad was an honest guy so he said there was one such case that was a puzzle. So they asked him to tell them about it. So the forum became intrigued with the shorthand notes that had been taken of things this man talked about. "One evening when they were talking to this man, a kind of an argument came up. They were talking with someone who claimed to be a "Mighty Messenger." They asked if he could prove he was a Mighty Messenger. " No," he said, "but you can't prove I'm not either. If you knew what I know, you wouldn't ask these silly questions. You would prepare some of the most deep, searching and far-reaching questions you could possibly imagine." "My father was half English and half Irish and he got kind of mad -- he was investigating this phenomena and now he was being challenged.Pop looked at the others in the group and said, "Lets pursue this and see what happens." "So the next Sunday when the Forum met, the whole group came in on the deal. I was told that approximately five thousand questions were given. Some were silly -- how old is God, who created him, and so forth. What happened was this -- one day the questions were gone and where the questions had been was the first of the Urantia Papers and was entitled, "The Universal Father."
"I'll tell you how I think this paper was written. And my theory is not one-hundred percent correct. But its the best I can find. Visualize several places in space -- points A, B, C and D. I think the papers were dictated or conceived at point A and had we been there when any of these papers was written we would have seen nothing. A Divine Counselor is presenting his concepts in the language of Uversa*. A translator is there who translates it into the language of Salvington*. There is another translator there who translates fromthe language of Salvington* to the language of Satania* and another translator who translates fromSatania* into English. You cannot translate from Uversa* into English because the languages are too far apart."I suspect that 99% of the original concept was lost in translation -- English is too primitive a language. Take Bantu where they have one, two and then "many" -- the end of their numbers -- and you want to translate into large number systems, you simply can't do it. See the problem?
"Point A was linked by some sort of communication circuit to point B. At point B there would be something to see, but it would be rather dull. It would be a man asleep -- doing nothing. Remember the resurrection and the way the stone was moved by the Midwayers? <Translate "Midwayers" as "los seres intermedios"> At point C you would see a pencil moving over paper with no visible means of motion. That'swhere the physical writing took place. Now point D would be where we found the papers. This individual was never seen to write one of these papers -- and don't think we weren't trying to watch him. If he wrote them he was more clever than we -- he was never observed to write them.
"We tried everything we could think of to see how this was being done, but were baffled. The text was entirely written in pencil -- all in the handwriting of this individual. "Who was this man? I took an oath not to divulge who he was. That was required of all who know his identity and it was required by the commissioner who sponsored the last of the papers. We think we know why it was required. He would have asked us to maintain secrecy. One of the reasons this man was picked is that he has a passion for privacy -- a very stable man. He doesn't want to be known.
"These papers were read to the forum. At the end of each paper was a note suggesting the next title on which questions should be asked. This is how they led us through the first time. They were read to the forum and they generated more questions and over a period of years this book accumulated. And eventually when we had money we published it.
"In 1950 we completed the preparation of our plates. As money came in we forecast inflation, so we took the money we had and spent it in getting Donnelley (the publisher) to prepare the plates. If you went to Chicago, you'd see that the Urantia Foundation was established in 1950 by the anonymous donation of the plates of The Urantia Book. We got nickel coated plates. If you write to Donnelley, they'll tell you they negotiated withMr. Wilfred Kellogg. The Urantia Foundation owns the copyright. There are five trustees. In about 1954 these five trustees of 1955 and has been spreading ever since.
"I was there most of the time. I'm a management man, not the kind of man you would expect to see mixed up in something like this -- and I was very suspicious of all this. I askedmyself, "Who ismaking money on this? I found that it was going to costmoney. I realized there was no commercial end. And, as the book cleared up some personal quarrels I had with religion, I felt it was a pretty good thing. So I elected to spend my spare time telling people about it. I don't get paid, but I get a lot of satisfaction. This is a first hand story except for the years from1924 to 1928 when I was doing military duty. And this is the first time this story has ever been recorded."
2. A Review of The Urantia Book
By Marcus Bach Unity Village, MO 64065 Question Marc Unity Magazine Pages 43-45 November, 1993
[ Dr. Marcus Bach received his Ph.D. fromthe University of Iowa and served as associate director and professor in the School of Religion at the University of Iowa. He has contributed to the Encyclopedia Americana, Theatre Arts, the Reader's Digest, and many other periodicals. His twenty-six books include Major Religions of the World, Had you Been Born in Another Faith, The Unity Way, The World of Serendipity, and The Power of Total Living. His latest title is Who StoleMy Utopia? Dr. Bach is founder and director of The Fellowship for Spiritual Understanding.]
Question: I have come upon a copy of The Urantia Book. Wow! Is it an authentic history of our planet Earth and a revelation of the government of the universe, or is it an amazingly elaborate hoax? Is it a true manifest message of God or mere mortal speculation and opinion to serve some vestedmaterial interest? I would welcome and be grateful for your comments. -- KG, Missouri
Answer: Your "Wow" is an echo of my own reaction swhen The Urantia Book was placed into my hands in 1963. My response to your questions takes me back through the years to a January meeting in a Chicago suite of offices where a group of men had permitted me to listen in on a conference about religion and life as projected in The Urantia Book. The more I listened, the more I marveled. The book, which had appeared in 1950, was a masterwork of 2097 pages without an authorship; a book asmysterious as the Dead Sea Scrolls; an incredible book twice the size of the Bible and going back before the days of creation millions of years when the earth was "without formand void."The book was divided into four parts. Part 1: The Central and Superuniverse, Part 2: The Local Universe, Part 3: The History of URANTIA, Part 4: The Life and Teachings of Jesus. Reading and concentrating especially on Part 3, I learned that URANTIA is and has been known since its creation as the Earth Planet or Mother Earth. God has ordained it a paradise with a future that will reveal the possibility of a utopia in which God, nature, and humankind will respect and strive for the union of science and religion. The gift of this book fromthe URANTIA Foundation was one I treasured because religion ismy beat, and ever since my commitment to that career, I have decided that if ever there would be a wedding of science and religion, I wanted to be the best man! According to my research, The URANTIA Book has never been seriously discussed or endorsed by such organizations as the American Geophysical Union or the Institute of Geophysics and Physics.
In my inquiries with the University of California's department of geophysics and The Evolution of Life, authorities had never given the book any serious consideration. I find no reference to it in the authoritative and scholarly works of the Philosophical Research Society of Los Angeles. It has never received the blessings of GAIA, the prestigious organization headed by the eminent inventor-scientist, James Lovelock. I was also greatly surprised how few libraries had the book on their shelves. Of the twenty-four libraries that I polled, only six had copies, and the book was classified as either occult, parapsychological, or metaphysical. However, there are 260,000 copies of the book in print, and it has been translated into many foreign languages.
There will need to be more research done before the book is considered, as you Say "an authentic history of our planet Earth." Nonetheless, I found it to be a most persuasive and rational attempt at an explanation of creation both in scientific and mythological terms. The Old and New Testaments of the Bible have never professed to be used as a scientific explanation of the nature of life or life as nature.
If it is a hoax, it is incredible. I learned at the meeting I attended in 1963 that the history of The URANTIA Foundation can be traced to a meeting held in 1933 by a group of eminent businessmen who were interested in and concerned about religion and life. They formed The URANTIA Foundation whose purpose it would be to explore religion's role in the evolution of life and the interrelation between spiritual endeavors and scientific pursuits.
I cannot imagine that anyone, an individual any group, would spend seven years in research and writing to create a hoax nor would anyone with the wisdomand insight of the authors stoop to a deliberate fabrication. Only time will tell as to whether The URANTIA Book is a "true manifest message of God." In my own recall of The Urantia Book, I Christ. It was like a journey with Him asHe went about His duties, moved among the people, and lived out the dramatic destiny of His life, death, and Resurrection.
Reflecting on your question, I asked myself, what can be, a greater manifestation of God than an inspired piece of literature? How would you classify The Psalms? The Song of Solomon? The Beatitudes? The writings of Pierre early premise of the necessity for a "wedding between science and religion" becomes ever more apparent. A coalition of spiritually minded scientists and scientifically oriented religionists could make a great contribution to our world-- spiritually minded scientists and scientifically oriented religionists could make a great contribution to our world-- whether we call it URANTIA, Mother Earth, the universe, or our home.
3. Knowing Jesus and His Teachings through the Urantia Book
[Intellectually analysing without any religious prejudices, what any broad minded person thinking and applying his God provided brain and intelligence can understand, is that the Urantia Book is not contradictory to any of the religions of the world, but is complementary to all religions in making the human mind to understand the incomprehensible God properly without those erroneous concepts that crept into religious history and teachings due to his limitations of mind and memory.
As I find it the Urantia Book presents Jesus Christ in the most matter-of-fact manner, telling about his mission and his teachings, much more elaborate and precise than what the Bible presents, leaving apart those out of context descriptions of miracles, which are only necessary to be emphasized when thought in the immature way of the human mind. Nearly half of the Urantia Book from Papers 120 to 196 covers the bestoval, life history and teachings of Jesus Christ on Urantia- ie our Earth so that we the Urantians come closer to God. Let me reproduce some of the Great Truths Jesus taught us as depicted in the Urantia Book by the devine authors.]
1. In the Urantia Book Paper 130: [ Jesus teaching the Philistine Interpreter Gadiah about Good and Evil]
Jesus' last visit with Gadiah had to do with a discussion of good and evil. This young Philistine was much troubled by a feeling of injustice because of the presence of evil in the world alongside the good. He said: "How can God, if he is infinitely good, permit us to suffer the sorrows of evil; after all, who creates evil?" It was still believed by many in those days that God creates both good and evil, but Jesus never taught such error.
In answering this question, Jesus said: "My brother, God is love; therefore he must be good, and his goodness is so great and real that it cannot contain the small and unreal things of evil. God is so positively good that there is absolutely no place in him for negative evil. Evil is the immature choosing and the unthinking misstep of those who are resistant to goodness, rejectful of beauty, and disloyal to truth. Evil is only the misadaptation of immaturity or the disruptive and distorting influence of ignorance. Evil is the inevitable darkness which follows upon the heels of the unwise rejection of light. Evil is that which is dark and untrue, and which, when consciously embraced and willfully endorsed, becomes sin.
"Your Father in heaven, by endowing you with the power to choose between truth and error, created the potential negative of the positive way of light and life; but such errors of evil are really nonexistent until such a time as an intelligent creature wills their existence by mischoosing the way of life. And then are such evils later exalted into sin by the knowing and deliberate choice of such a willful and rebellious creature. This is why our Father in heaven permits the good and the evil to go along together until the end of life, just as nature allows thewheat and the tares to grow side by side until the harvest."
Gadiah was fully satisfied with Jesus' answer to his question after their subsequent discussion had made clear to his mind the real meaning of these momentous statements.
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Please Note !