Gnostic-Sant Mat Parallels

Gnostic — Sant Mat Parallels
by James Bean

In the Corpus Hermeticum and Nag Hammadi scriptures are/were described all of the ingredients of a living, viable mystical path:

1) living masters/teachers with students (past masters, scrolls, cuneiform tablets or old scriptures are not enough; a living guide is required);

2) a cosmology of several heavens/inner regions/planes/spheres;

3) an understanding that souls can access these realms here and now during this present life (a present-tense Kingdom of Heaven available to souls right now, not postponed till some hypothesized future age);

4) an initiation into the mysteries of the heavens, imparting to spiritual seekers the meditation techniques and sacred names;

5) visionary and auditory mysticism (inner spiritual seeing and hearing) — descriptions of souls traveling within through various inner regions;

6) they have an ethical code, and this ethical foundation includes a vegetarian diet, then and now;

7) The Goal of the teachings and meditation practice is experiencing direct union with God.

“In this life the concept of salvation all
describe;
To meet the Lord by dying while living,
none discloses.
They all speak of the goal of salvation after
death;
How to attain it while living, no one says.
Were they to reveal the method of attaining
release while living,
Then alone would Tulsi be convinced of
their words.

“Who speak, after seeing with their own eyes,
And teach the method of salvation during
life,
Are of the stage and stature of Saints,
For they reveal the quintessence of the soul.”

— Param Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, India