A. Religions remind humanity of the interconnectedness of humanity and God - even if they define God as an old man with a beard upstairs who watches everything you do; and does not like most of what you do. It is a simplistic view, but it reminds humanity that we are not alone, that there is more to life than the immediate needs of the physical body, that life has a spiritual basis and is to be lived always on a higher and higher turn of the spiral. That is the strength and value of the organized religious groups. They protect the young. I do not mean little children but the young souls who otherwise might waste many incarnations in useless, not to say dangerously destructive, lives. That framework protects, even if there comes a point when it is outgrown. The protective mechanism of mother- or father-church is eventually outgrown; it is no longer needed. The person usually revolts; he may give up the entire idea of God for years, until by himself, through meditation, he makes the connecting link with the soul. The process of building the antahkarana begins, even if he has never heard the word antahkarana. For esotericists on the path, that process is totally conscious.

A. The reason you find it difficult to choose between different systems is because you already have the enlightenment which cannot tie itself to a fixed dogma or doctrine.

Within all the religions of the world are great initiates, but they are not initiates because they are in a particular religion. They are in that religion because they are initiates, and can benefit the religion in which they act.

Maitreya has come to show humanity that we are one, brothers and sisters of one humanity, stemming from the One Divine Source. Maitreya has come to make sure that we do not destroy ourselves - not by holding up a divine hand and saying: 'It will not happen. God says it will not happen.' He is not God. He is divine but then we, too, are divine. The only difference between us and Maitreya is that He has demonstrated His divinity, He is aware of it moment-to-moment, as an on-going process, while we have not to any great extent done so. Our problem is that we do not know how best to do it. We will respond to Him, I believe, and He will show us the way to be ourselves, not by following other people or a particular religion because it makes us feel happier. Maitreya calls religion a ladder: it helps you to get onto the roof; but once on the roof you can throw the ladder away. A religion itself is not the truth, though it may help you to find the truth.

A. Most certainly, yes. The Christian Bible is the embodiment of profound teaching and prophecy, symbolically and allegorically expressed. It is not meant to be taken literally, and, if it is, it leads to the present confusion of fundamentalist and orthodox Christians in relation to the reappearance of the Christ. It is not, as Christians fondly believe, the only book of Divine revelation, but for long years to come it will serve many millions of Christians - when its true meaning and purpose is revealed by the physical presence of the Christ (Maitreya) and of the Master Jesus, Who is in charge of the Christian Churches. Freed of the man-made dogmas and doctrines, the Christian Bible will find a new lease of life in the demonstration of the age-old story of initiation through the Gospel of the life of Jesus, and as a constant reminder of the interaction of God and man in man's long journey to divinity.

A. A time is soon coming when you, or others, can (and no doubt will) ask the Master Jesus that question directly. I believe the answer will be in the negative. I believe that He will say that there is no man in the whole universe who is the 'one and only God' or the 'one and only Son of God'; that this is a distortion propounded by an exclusive Christian church from ignorance of the true relationship of Jesus to 'God'; that Jesus is a Son of God - as are all the Masters - as, potentially, is every man, woman and child on Earth.

A. To my way of thinking, the Christian Churches have released into the world a view of the Christ which is impossible for modern people to accept: as the one and only Son of God, sacrificed by a loving Father to save us from the results of our sins - a blood sacrifice, straight out of the old Jewish dispensation. We have rejected this view, we have left the Church in our millions, because it doesn't tally with our knowledge of history, of science, and of other religions.

The esoteric view, I submit, is more rational, more probable, and that is that Christ is a man. To my mind the Churches have over-emphasized the divinity of the Christ. He is divine, but in the way that you and are divine - only He has manifested His divinity and we as yet have not.

The idea of a Christ Who comes from the sky, from some mythical heaven; that the clouds are going to open and He is going to come down in a long white robe; to my mind all this is ludicrous. It does not tie up with our modern scientific knowledge, of human psychology, of the facts of nature and of other religions. I believe that in postulating this view of the Christ, the Churches have separated humanity from the Christ.

They have made Him an impossibly remote figure, whereas He is an example - He should be an example - to mankind. But as a transcendent, divine figure, cut off from all mankind, as a God somewhere up there in heaven, He no longer serves as an example. The idea of Christ as a man, living now on the planet; as a great evolved Being, one of many such, the most evolved, but one of many - 'the eldest in a great family of brothers' - makes it possible for us to realise that one day we shall be like Him. In fact, He said so. He said: 'One day you will do greater things than I have done'.

A. I know that at least one of my books - the first book: The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom - was physically put into the hands of the Pope years ago. The Pope thumbed through it, and I understand that he read it later and does not believe a word of it. The Pope himself recently published a book in which he says that those who talk about the presence now in the world of a new Buddha should know that he is not 'our Christ'.

However, the Master Jesus has been living in Rome for the last seven years, and there are two members of the Curia (the group around the Pope) who are direct disciples of the Master Jesus. For years they have been trying subtly to reorient the Pope to the idea of the presence of the Master Jesus in Rome and of Maitreya in London, without, I think, any success. The Pope is probably too old and too rigid in his understanding of scripture to change. However, it will not have escaped your notice that over the years the Pope, in the economic field, has been extremely positive and progressive, going around the world advocating sharing and a more just society. This is the impression on his mind of the Master Jesus. Jesus does not overshadow him in the way Maitreya overshadowed Jesus, but He impresses his mind, and in so far as the Pope is open to that impression, which he seems to be, he goes out of his way to call for redistribution of resources and so on. He is doing very good work in that respect. (Jan 98)

Q. When Maitreya talks on television, transmitted via satellite, and everyone in the world understands what He is talking about, what role do you see for the existing religious leaders - Pope John Paul, for example?

A. That is up to him if he survives the shock. The Master Jesus has been living in Rome for over four years, and He will take over the throne of St Peter. He will not become the Pope, but the true apostolic succession will begin from that time.

The Master Jesus is, now, in charge of the Christian churches. Maitreya is the World Teacher for all groups, religious and non-religious alike, and the inspirer of all the different evolutionary endeavours on the planet. In the light of the new dispensation, when the Master Jesus, the Master Who was St Paul, the one Who was St Peter, the Master Who was St John the Beloved, and other disciples who were around Jesus are seen openly and acknowledge Themselves to be who they are, it will completely transform the thinking of intelligent Christian people. The shock to the Christian Church will be immense, of course. Theologians will have to rewrite their theology.

Every teaching that has been handed down has come, in the beginning, by word of mouth, taking centuries for its dissemination. Inevitably, every teaching is distorted, more or less, with the result that the teachings in some cases bear little relation to the original. There is enough of it to grip the imagination and the spiritual aspiration of the masses, but the details alienate one teaching from another. All the teachings come from the same source, the Spiritual Hierarchy, and all are in total agreement but with slight differences - given for certain peoples at specific times. The distortions have led to the divisions which we see between nations and religions.

The task of the Master Jesus is to rid the Christian Church of all its man-made dogmas and doctrines which today befuddle, and I would say bedevil, the minds of countless millions of Christians who otherwise would be ready for this event. They are told it cannot happen until the end of the world; it is happening now. We have the same situation now as there was 2,000 years ago in Palestine, when the Sanhedrin was expecting 'a warrior king' to rid them of Roman rule. When Jesus came they did not recognize Him. The Christian, Muslim and other fundamentalist religious leaders will probably be among the last to recognize the Christ, the World Teacher, for Who and what He is. (June 95)

A. Yes, as a unifier of the Christian approach - provided that, in the light of the new reality which the Christ's presence presents (and that of the Master Jesus, Who is in charge of the Christian churches), it is flexible and resilient enough to renounce its manmade dogmas and doctrines, political and economic power, and social control.

A. The orthodox view is that He is the one and only Son of God. Actually, there is no such person; there never has been and never will be such a person. Every single man, woman and child in the world is a son or daughter of God. Every one of us has, in potential, that divinity. There is only one divinity, and we all share it. The only difference between the Christ and ourselves, the Buddha or Krishna and ourselves, is that They have manifested Their divinity. They know that They are Sons of God, and They demonstrate it. We do not know that we are sons of God. We are taught otherwise by the churches: we are taught that we are born in sin and only through the agency of Jesus can we know God.

In fact, God can be known by anyone, moment to moment. You do not have to be a Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Muslim to know God. You can know God whether you are religious or an atheist, whether you believe in God or not. It has nothing to do with belief, but with direct experience. Because you are God, because you are divine, whatever your belief or non-belief, you can know God as an immediate experience in your life - in the way every child automatically, instinctively, does when it comes into the world, without having heard that it is born into a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Hindu family. It is not concerned with that but with its experience.

God is not concerned with whether you are a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Christian. These are temporary manifestations in time and place, and the accident of birth - where you happen to be born. If you are born in the West you are more likely to be Christian. If you are born in the East you are more likely to be Hindu or Buddhist. If you are born in the Middle East, you will probably be Jewish or Muslim. The more fanatical exponents of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, of Judaism and Buddhism, and so forth, have made these totally artificial separations in the world.

This has hindered the evolution of humanity. It holds us back. It prevents the creation of right human relationships. Right relationship is the next step forward for humanity, so anything that holds it back is not something to be welcomed.

A. This is the Christ Consciousness, the Christ Principle. It is the evolutionary energy, per se, the energy of consciousness itself. This is now being born in mankind on a scale hitherto unknown. It is this which is bringing mankind as a whole towards the gates of Initiation, into Initiate consciousness, which is divine consciousness. The Masters are divine. They are human beings who have revealed Their innate, essential, divine consciousness. They have become Initiate. Initiate of the nature of God. Therefore, They are able to manifest That. This is brought about by the inflow and expression of the 'Christ in us, the hope of glory'. The One we call the Christ, the One who holds the Office of the Christ, the Head of Hierarchy, embodies that energy, anchors it in the world. He releases it daily into the world and it is transforming humanity, working in men to produce the new spiritual vision. By 'spiritual' I don't mean that people will necessarily join the churches, but that they will make right relations; bring about the brotherhood of man - which is a fact in nature, if we could but manifest it. It is through the expression of the Christ in us, the Christ Consciousness, the Christ Principle, that this takes place.

It is also that energy which will bring about in mankind what is called Spiritual Recognition. Through that energy manifesting in their hearts, mankind as a whole can recognise the Christ. As it manifests in them they will say: 'I will follow that man', because He stands for what it inspires in them. When the Christ calls for sharing and co-operation, when this Individual becomes known as the spokesman for the groups along these lines, mankind will recognise Him through having that energy in itself. He embodies it. They will respond to Him as it manifests through them.

A. The elect, of course, are the fundamentalist Christians who believe they know exactly how the Christ will return (that is, on a cloud at the end of the world). You would be surprised how many 'Christs' I have met. You cannot do the work I have been doing for 20-odd years and not meet a succession of people who believe themselves to be the Christ. Dozens of evangelistic Christian preachers on television in America believe that they have the 'word of God' in their pocket, that everything they say, quoting word-for-word from the Bible, is literally true. The Bible is not meant to be taken literally but is couched, rather, in symbolic language. I believe the Bible to be a work of profound prophecy and truth when understood from its inner meaning; if taken literally, it becomes something else.

The would-be Maitreyas, the would-be Christs, are in every country. That prophecy is being borne out in the world today. You should note very clearly that I have not said where Maitreya exactly is but only that He is in the Asian community of London. For years I could have pin-pointed the very place where He is, and if I had done so the world's media would have been there straight away and this story would have been proved true and fulfilled years ago - no later than 1982, when He was ready to come forward. The media listened then to the information, and in large measure believed it but did not act.

A. Maitreya comes to teach. Humanity has to save itself through correct response to the teachings. He does not come to 'save humanity': no one can save you - not Maitreya, not the Buddha, not any one who has ever been on earth can save you. Only you yourself can save yourself in the esoteric sense of fulfilling the nature of your Being and fulfilling the task of demonstrating that Being on planet Earth in its perfection. That is what saves you; it is called 'Self-realization'.

All the Masters are Self-realized, perfected, saved. If I were to say to you: 'Believe on Jesus and you will be saved' - that is what every Christian tells you, especially the fundamentalists - or 'Believe in the Buddha' or 'Believe in Krishna' and you will go to Nirvana or wherever - it is a nonsense. Belief has nothing to do with it. Belief is to do with religion. Maitreya says religions have a function - they are like a ladder that helps you to get on to the roof, but once you are there you can throw away the ladder or give it to someone else.

It is to do with awareness, a growing, conscious awareness. That is the path of evolution, belief is not. You can be a convinced atheist, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, for 15, 20, 30 years and then suddenly 'see the light' and become something else - a Rosicrucian, a Theosophist, or some other 'ism'. But life is not to do with 'isms' or ideology; it is to do with Action and Reaction, that great Law, and these are opposite and equal. If we learn the meaning of that Law, we learn what it is to be harmless. It is harmlessness which is at the root of Being which keeps us safe. If we are harmless we do not make the karma which drives people to war, to fear, and all the rest of it. Maitreya comes to show us in the simplest terms, much more simply than I know how to do it.

A. The disciple who was the Mother of Jesus in Palestine is now a Master and is not in incarnation at this time. He is responsible for the many visions and other phenomena - weeping and moving statues and the like.

A. Kalki Avatar, for Hindus, is the Avatar for this coming age or Yuga, and is synonymous with Krishna. Hindus expect an Avatar - they have the doctrine of Avatars who come cyclically, age after age. In the West Jesus is seen as a 'one-off' event: God made flesh, who came specifically for a particular group. In fact, there has never been an age without an Avatar. Hindus await a reincarnation of Krishna. Maitreya overshadowed Krishna, so as far as Hindus are concerned, Maitreya is Kalki Avatar, the Avatar for this coming age, the 'age of righteousness', which indeed it will be. It is the age in which for the first time on a mass scale the spiritual essence of humanity demonstrates; in which humanity realizes, experiences itself, as one, and therefore creates structures which will demonstrate that oneness. It will also see itself not only as one but as whole, intrinsically part of its environment.

There will come a time when humanity will see that humanity, God, and nature are one and the same; there is no separation between any of these. That sense of wholeness, eventually, humanity en masse will know, not just as an intellectual idea but as direct experience. Krishna, or Kalki Avatar, comes at the end of this 'dark age', Kali Yuga. Though not everyone would agree that Kali Yuga, the 'dark age', has ended, the great Teacher, Sai Baba, in south India, has said that the dark age is over; Swami Premananda has said the same thing; my Master has confirmed that it is now ending. So it is now possible for Kalki Avatar, 'the rider on the White Horse', to come.

Q. Will the Buddha play a supportive role on the Day of Declaration?

A. The answer to that is yes. The Buddha has been playing a supportive role since Maitreya's decision to appear, which was made in 1945. The Buddha is no longer in the Hierarchy but is related to it. He is on a higher level than Hierarchy, namely Shamballa, the Centre where the Will of God is known. He is in the Council of the Lord of the World and acts as the Divine Intermediary between Shamballa and Hierarchy. Every year at the Wesak Festival He comes very close to the earth and brings energy from Shamballa which is distributed out to the world for the next year.

Every year since Maitreya's statement that He would return to the world, the Buddha stands behind Him. There is also a closer association in that He now has the use of what are called 'the Buddha's garments'. The Buddha is the embodiment of the wisdom aspect of divinity on the planet, and His 'garment' is that divine wisdom. So Maitreya can use the wisdom of the Buddha together with His own love to know the necessary teaching in approaching the people of the West and the people of the East. He can see the world through the Buddha's eyes just as He sees it through His own eyes.

So there is a very close relationship: They are two of the earliest of humanity to take initiation, way back in early Atlantean days, and have been together ever since. Maitreya is still in the Hierarchy, the Buddha now on Shamballa, and He helps Maitreya in every way that is possible. There are other great Beings Who overshadow Maitreya, and add Their extraordinary cosmic energy to His energy. There never has been an Avatar as equipped as Maitreya now is - because no Avatar has ever had such a task as Maitreya has today.

A. No, I would not have thought so at all. Buddhism, in my estimation, is the closest to the esoteric teaching of Hierarchy on this point. It is important to remember that Maitreya is not 'God' nor will He claim to be God, but a divine Messenger come to show us the divine nature.

When asked about whether or not God exists, the Buddha answered to the effect that if you do not know who and what you are (as a man) how can you know about God. Leave that question alone, therefore, He said, until you know yourself.

A. Let me say right away that Maitreya is not God. He is a representative, an expression, a messenger, of God. He has, as a moment-to-moment experience, realized His complete identity with God or the Self, the Lord. He is so evolved, and so pure, that He can, in His own Being, embody that aspect of God's nature we call Love, the Christ Principle.

A. Some of the people around Maitreya were around Jesus in Palestine. The Master Morya, a very well-known Master, was St Peter. John the Beloved is now the Master Koot Hoomi. The disciple who came after Jesus, St Paul, who created 'churchianity' and called it 'Christianity', is also now one of the Masters, Hilarion. We will see Them very shortly. The Master Jesus, the best-known Master of all, is already in the world, and has been living in the outskirts of Rome for about seven years. Very soon after we see Maitreya, we will see the Master Jesus and Maitreya side-by-side. People see Them together now in all sorts of different guises. As readers of Share International know, we publish accounts of people's experiences with Maitreya and the Master Jesus. (March 96)

A. He did, to those immediately around Him. That was part of the secret teachings to the inner group and would have been quite incomprehensible to the people in general.

A. Of course this concept has never been lost in the Orient. In the West, however, it would appear to have been commonly accepted until the 6th century AD. Many of the early Christian teachers and theologians, Origen (185-253 AD) in particular, laid great emphasis on this basic law of rebirth. As readers of Share International will know (see the special issue on Reincarnation, Vol 4 Nos 1/2 January/February 1985, p26) it was the Emperor Justinius who forced the Church Fathers at the 5th Ecumenical Council in 553 AD to proclaim this teaching anathema. This ban has, unfortunately, become part of the established church teachings.

A. It seems obvious that a true realization of the implications of reincarnation (and not simply an intellectual acceptance) will transform the whole Western approach to reality. The idea that life is not short, brutish and arbitrary; that there is purpose and plan; that we are undergoing a process of gradual perfectionment; above all that the great Law of Cause and Effect governs our existence, must change our viewpoint. The need for right human relationships, for harmlessness, will become abundantly clear.

A. There is such a thing as the anti-christ, but there is a great misapprehension about what the anti-christ is. Fundamentally, the anti-christ is the First or Will aspect of God, in its destructive form. It is that which destroys in order to prepare the way for the building aspect, which is the Christ aspect. It is that which breaks down and destroys the old to prepare the new forms for the incoming energy, the building energy, so that the Christ aspect can manifest. That is what is happening now. This anti-christ force has worked out through the war from 1914-1945. (From the Hierarchical point of view that was one war.) That war was precipitated on to the physical plane from the astral planes where it had been going on, since Atlantean times, between the Forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness; the evolutionary and the involutionary forces; the Hierarchy and the materialistic forces of this planet. The war between them in Atlantis caused the Hierarchy (Who before then had worked openly, outwardly in the world as the priest-kings and god-like beings Who gave men the Atlantean civilisation) to become occult, esoteric, working only from the higher mental planes. By the defeat of the Axis powers in the war of 1939-1945, the Forces of Evil of the planet (which is the evil of all mankind, not simply of the Axis powers) were defeated. Certain leaders in Nazi Germany, Japan, and to a much lesser extent in Italy, focused in themselves the energy which we call the anti-christ; but it is an energy, it is not a being, not an individual. It is preparing the way. It is the destructive force of God Himself, which prepares the way for the Christ.

Where the involutionary force overflows on to the evolutionary arc (on which we are), it appears to us as evil. It has its role, in upholding the matter aspect of the planet, but too gross a materiality prevents mankind from advancing along the evolutionary path.

The Forces of Evil on the planet have been defeated. They are not destroyed, but they are defeated. There is a stanza in the Great Invocation which says: 'And may it seal the door where evil dwells'. This refers to the sealing energies (which we transmitted earlier in the meeting). Their job is to lock away, to seal those forces to their own domain, to uphold the matter aspect, by lifting humanity above the level where they can be influenced, so that we can spiritualise matter, which is what we are really about.

A. Hitler was both an agent and responsible. He was obsessed by various members of what are called the Lords of Materiality, which we call the 'forces of evil'. This is a group of 12 highly advanced men - from our point of view they would be Masters except that they have no love in their makeup.

They work through those of similar vibration, as do the forces of light, the Hierarchy of Masters.

Hitler was actually a fairly evolved individual, a second-degree initiate; that is, he was two-fifths of the way along the path to becoming a Master. But even when the second initiation is taken, the person is only potentially divine. The first initiation that involves the soul is the third. From that point on, the man or woman is truly divine. This is symbolized in the gospel story by the transfiguration of Jesus on the mount. It is true that Hitler was only a second-degree initiate, but so, too, were Mahatma Gandhi, Reich, Freud, Jung, Einstein, Schweitzer, Plato and many other very evolved individuals who have contributed massively to our civilization and culture. Occasionally, however, there is a rotten egg in the basket. Hitler was one of these, a deeply evil personality. Because he was of the second degree, he had power and could be powerfully used, obsessed, by the forces of evil - like vibration attracted like vibration.

The problem for Germany was that Hitler was a medium (Germany is a highly mediumistic country). The Masters use a process of overshadowing which stops just short of obsession, in which the disciple's free will is never infringed, but the forces of materiality obsess right to the point where they completely control the personality. Hitler was controlled in this way. He also patted children on the head, his friends liked him, no doubt, but when the obsession took place, when he was talking to the multitudes, he became a ranting, powerful, obsessed, hollow shell who galvanized Germany, Japan and Italy to link together across the world as the Axis powers. Through that triangle the forces of evil manifested.

So Hitler was involved -  as an agent for the forces of evil and also by his own innate evil: it is evil to want to dominate the world for 1,000 years, which is what he envisaged for the Third Reich. Not to mention the gas chambers.