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Sri Shantananda Saraswati
Om May no harm be done Here, May this desire be motivated by Love. May what is not beneficent wither to obscurity.
 
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The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is extra to the canonical gospels in the New Testament of the bible. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate that the works were buried and hidden after the declaration of a strict canon of Christian scripture, where any works that were not selected for inclusion in the new testament were ordered to be destroyed. Scholars have proposed dates of composition as early as 60 AD and as late as 250 AD as a collection of sayings of Jesus.
Our Commentary on Verse 003 of Thomas Gospel.
These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down.
Gospel of Thomas Saying 3 - The kingdom is within us.
Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
"If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you.
It would be an error of duality, to say I am here , and he, she or another is there. That is to not understand the reality of non-duality. It is normal, especially in the west for people to imagine that the kingdom lives above us. And, that ‘his kingdom’ is in the ‘heavens’ which is also somewhere above us. This ambiguous concept easily finds a place in our minds, especialy while we are children. A more adult but still dualistic and wrong concept might be to imagine that if there is a seperate god, ‘He She or It’ would be a part of this planet or this universe, that is, here somewhere. Jesus is saying that such a material understanding would be incorrect and would not reveal the Divine. Even the birds and fish, who do not ponder such things, have as good a chance as anyone with a dualistic understanding, of realising the truth of the divine. That is, the one who is being led in the wrong direction has no more chance than an animal of finding the truth.
“Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you”.
The true understanding of the realm of the divine is not to be found in any material form. Be it a body, air, outer space, a planet or the entire universe. All that exists is known, and and supported as Absolute Consciousness. The totality of this Existence is the singularity of the Divine Absolute. The Divine has no particular attributes or a particular place. This is the truth of nonduality.
It is a logical truth that existence itself is without beginning. Because a beginning which is something, would be a change from no existence which would have been nothing. Anything that had a beginning can therefore change. Anything that had a beginning can change and so therefore will end. But, existence still exists. This is proof therefore, that this existence is beginningless and is immortal. It is the totality of this existence that is the immortal Divine, or Kingdom, as it were.
Further to the above, that which exists, but has no beginning and no end cannot suffer the effects of time. Time does not exist in this Kingdom of heaven.
So, there never has been a ‘time’ when you, Jesus or I, has never existed. Being timeless there never will be a time when, in its essence or knowledge, that exists now will cease to exist.
“When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father”
Jesus is saying that when we attain the understanding that all of this existence is one, nondual, then we will truly ‘know’. Being one only then to ‘know’ is to also be known, because there is no ‘other’ that does not know. The reality of non-duality means to know the one thing is to know all things.
It follows, that this life is experienced through this Divine existence . Or, our experience of a life is supported and enabled as part of this Divine existence. Or, there is the one non-dual Divine, Kingdom or Father, through which there is the experience of many lives. The one existence of many experiences.
“But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
Meaning, that if you do not discover who you truly are in this life, "know yourselves", then you could not live "dwell in" your true potential. In the light of what you could have been you have not experienced the bliss of your true being, "it is you who are that poverty." The poverty of even a life full of material riches but lived in ignorance of its ultimate divinity.
Luke 17:20-21, Luke 17:22-25, Matt 24:23-38, Mark 13:21-23.
All verses of the Thomas Gospel.
Ohm peace, peace, peace.