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RESURRECTION.
551
Mythologically, the allegory is now complete. Its chief features, in their proper sequence, are:
(1) the Godhood of jiva, i.e., soul;
(2) the temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil;
(3) the fall, whereby the God-element went down and the lower element became uppermost; whereby, also, the Immortal became the mortal ;
(4) redemption by the 'Key of Knowledge;' (5) crucifixion of the lower element;
(6) resurrection, or the regaining of the lost immortality; and
(7) ascension, or the final triumph, i.e., the going up of the God-element to the top.
The idea is so complete and full in all its details that it leaves no room for doubt as to its being the true essence of the Biblical religion.
It is now possible to reconcile many of the old prophecies contained in the Old Testament in the light of our knowledge of mythology. Even the idea of the virgin-birth of Christ becomes intelligible now. When the Holy Ghost, or the spirit of Vairagya (renunciation) quickens the germ of Godhood lying dormant within the soul, it is called the birth of man in spirit, not a re-entering into the mother's womb a second time, as Nicodemus thought, but a birth of the saviour within each and every human being, as Jesus taught. Truly is the teaching of the master :
“That which is born of fiesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again"-(John, III. 6 and 7),
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