THE THREE SPIRITUAL FESTIVALS
There are three such Festivals each
year which all men could and would normally and easily keep together, in unison
and with a uniformity of approach which would link them all closely together.
These three Festivals are concentrated in three consecutive months and lead,
therefore, to a prolonged annual spiritual effort which should affect the
entire year. They would serve to unite in closer spiritual ties the Eastern and
the Western believer; they express divinity in manifestation through the place
where the will of God is known, through the spiritual Hierarchy where the love
of God is fully expressed and through humanity whose task it is intelligently
to work out God's plan in love and goodwill to all men.
I. The Festival of Easter. This
is the festival of the risen, living Christ, the Head of the spiritual
Hierarchy, the Inaugurator of the Kingdom of God and the Expression of the love
of God. On this day, the spiritual Hierarchy which He guides and directs will
be universally recognized, man's relation to it emphasized and the nature of
God's love registered. Men everywhere will invoke that love, with its power to
produce resurrection and spiritual livingness. This Festival is determined
always by the date of the first Full Moon of spring. The eyes and thoughts of
men will be fixed on life, not death; Good Friday will no longer be a factor in
the life of the churches. Easter will be the great Western festival.
II. The Festival of Wesak or
Vaisakha. This is the festival of the Buddha, that great spiritual Intermediary
between the centre where the will of God is known and the spiritual Hierarchy.
The Buddha is the expression of the will of God, the embodiment of Light and
the indicator of the divine purpose. Men everywhere will evoke wisdom and
understanding and the inflow of light into the minds of men everywhere. This
Festival is determined in relation to the Full Moon of Taurus. [Page 164] It is
the great Eastern festival and is already meeting with Western recognition;
thousands of Christians today keep the festival of the Buddha.
III. The Festival of Humanity.
This will be the festival of the spirit of humanity—aspiring to approach nearer
to God, seeking conformity to the divine will to which the Buddha called
attention, dedicated to the expression of goodwill which is the lowest aspect
of love to which Christ called attention and of which He was the perfect
expression. It will be the day pre-eminently on which the divine nature of man
will be recognized and his power to express goodwill and to establish right
human relations (because of his divinity) will be stressed. On this festival we
are told Christ has for nearly two thousand years represented humanity and has
stood before the Hierarchy as the God-man, the leader of His people and
"the Eldest in a great family of brothers". This will, therefore, be
a festival of deep invocation and appeal; it will express a basic aspiration
towards fellowship and for human and spiritual unity; it will represent the
effect in the human consciousness of the work of the Buddha and of the Christ.
It will be held at the time of the Full Moon of Gemini.
(Alice
Bailey, Problems of Humanity)
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