** Mystic Christianity ** Ramacharaka ** CD-MP3 * NEW *

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.

The lessons which compose this volume originally appeared in monthlyform, the first of which was issued in October, 1907, and the twelfthin September, 1908. These lessons met with a hearty and generousresponse from the public, and the present volume is issued in responseto the demand for the lessons in a permanent and durable form. Therehas been no change in the text.

The publishers take the liberty to call the attention of the readersto the great amount of information condensed within the space of eachlesson. Students have told us that they have found it necessary toread and study each lesson carefully, in order to absorb the variedinformation contained within its pages. They have also stated thatthey have found it advisable to re-read the lessons several times,allowing an interval between the readings, and that at each readingthey would discover information that had escaped them during thecourse of the previous study. This has been repeated to us so oftenthat we feel justified in mentioning it, that others may availthemselves of the same plan of study.

Following his usual custom, the writer of this volume has declined towrite a preface for this book, claiming that the lessons will speakfor themselves, and that those for whom they are intended will receivethe message contained within them without any prefatory talk.

THE YOGI PUBLICATION SOCIETY.
September 1, 1908.

Excerpt from Text:

The occult legends inform us that He aroused great interest amongthe people of each land visited by Him, and that He also aroused themost bitter opposition among the priests, for He always opposedformalism and priestcraft, and sought to lead the people back to theSpirit of the Truth, and away from the ceremonies and forms which havealways served to dim and becloud the Light of the Spirit. He taughtalways the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. He sought tobring the great Occult Truths down to the comprehension of the massesof people who had lost the Spirit of the Truth in their observance ofoutward forms and pretentious ceremonies.

It is related that in India He brought down upon His head the wrathof the Brahmin upholders of the caste distinctions, that curse ofIndia. He dwelt in the huts of the Sudras, the lowest of all of theHindu castes, and was therefore regarded as a pariah by the higherclasses. Everywhere He was regarded as a firebrand and a disturber ofestablished social order by the priests and high-caste people. He wasan agitator, a rebel, a religious renegade, a socialist, a dangerousman, an "undesirable citizen," to those in authority in those lands.

But the seeds of His wisdom were sown right and left, and in theHindu religions of today, and in the teachings of other Orientalcountries, may be found traces of Truth, the resemblance of which tothe recorded teachings of Jesus, show that they came from the samesource, and have sorely disturbed the Christian missionaries that havesince visited these lands.

And so, slowly and patiently, Jesus wended his way homeward towardIsrael, where He was to complete His ministry by three years' workamong His own race, and where He was to again raise up against Himselfthe opposition of the priests and the upper classes which would finallyresult in His death. He was a rebel against the established order ofthings, and He met the fate reserved for those who live ahead of theirtime.

And, as from the first days of His ministry to His last, so it istoday, the real teachings of the Man of Sorrows reach more readily theheart of the plain people, while they are reviled and combatted bythose in ecclesiastical and temporal authority, even though thesepeople claim allegiance to Him and wear His livery. He was ever thefriend of the poor and oppressed, and hated by those in authority.

And so, you see the Occult teachings show Jesus to have been aworld-wide teacher, instead of a mere Jewish prophet. The world was hisaudience, and all races His hearers.

He planted His seeds of Truth in the bosom of many religions insteadof but one, and these seeds are beginning to bear their best fruit evennow at this late day, when the truth of the Fatherhood of God and theBrotherhood of Man is beginning to be felt by all nations alike, and isgrowing strong enough to break down the old which have divided brotherfrom brother, and creed from creed. Christianity--true Christianity--isnot a mere creed, but a great human and divine Truth that will riseabove all petty distinctions of race and creed and will at last shineon all men alike, gathering them into one fold of UniversalBrotherhood.

May the Great Day be hastened!

About Yogi Ramacharaka, AKA William Walker Atkinson:

William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 - November 22, 1932) was avery important and influential American figure in the early days of theNew Thought Movement. He was an attorney, merchant, and author, as wellas an occultist and an American pioneer of New Thought, which is infact the title of a magazine he edited at one time. Atkinson was aprolific writer, and his many books on New Thought achieved widecirculation among New Thought devotees and practitioners. He is alsoknown to have been the author of the pseudonymous works attributed toTheron Q. Dumont and Yogi Ramacharaka.

Due in part to his intense personal secrecy and exstensive use ofpseudonyms, he is now largely forgotten, despite having obtainedmention in past editions of Who's Who in America, Religious Leaders ofAmerica.

Atkinson pursued a business career from 1882 onwards and in 1894 hewas admitted as an attorney to the Bar of Pennsylvania. While he gainedmuch material success in his profession as a lawyer, the stress andover-strain eventually took its toll, and during this time heexperienced a complete physical and mental breakdown, and financialdisaster. He looked for healing and in the late 1880's he found it withNew Thought. From mental and physical wreck and financial ruin, hewrought perfect health, mental vigor and material prosperity, which heattributed to the application of the principles of New Thought.

Some time after his healing, Atkinson began to write articles on thetruths he felt he had discovered. By the early 1890's Chicago hadbecome a major centre for New Thought... and Atkinson decided to movethere. Once in the city, he became an active promoter of the movementas an editor and author. Throughout his subsequent career, Atkinsonwrote and published under his own name and many pseudonyms, which werelinked together by a series of publishing houses with shared addressesand a series of magazines with a shared roster of authors.

In the 1890s, Atkinson had become interested in Hinduism and after1900 he devoted a great deal of effort to the diffusion of yoga andOriental occultism in the West. According to unverifiable sources,while Atkinson was in Chicago at the World's Columbian Exposition in1893, he met one Baba Bharata, a pupil of the late Indian mystic YogiRamacharaka (1799 - c.1893). As the story goes, Bharata had becomeacquainted with Atkinson's writings after arriving in America, the twomen shared similar ideas, and so they decided to collaborate. Whileperforming his New Thought editor job, it is claimed, Atkinson co-wrotewith Bharata a series of books which they attributed to Bharata'steacher, Yogi Ramacharaka.

In 1903, the same year that he began his writing career as YogiRamacharaka, Atkinson was admitted to the Bar of Illinois. Perhaps itwas a desire to protect his ongoing career as a lawyer that led him toadopt so many pseudonyms. The works of Yogi Ramacharaka were publishedover the course of nearly ten years beginning in 1903. Some wereoriginally issued as a series of lectures delivered at the frequency ofone lesson per month. Additional material was issued at each intervalin the form of supplementary textbooks.

Atkinson died November 22, 1932 in Los Angeles, California at theage of 70, after 50 years of simultaneously successful careers inbusiness, writing, and the law.
(Wikipedia)