I, therefore, radiate my light into those hearts serving! And I demand the crumbling of the walls of separation and the judgment of the fallen ones in the economies of the nations of Europe who have determined not to stand fully in the light of my flame, even in this hour! I do not expect it of them, for I know them and who they are. Nevertheless, I demand it! I demand their allegiance to the living God, no matter who or what they are or what their judgment is!

     I speak directly to all of the leaders in Europe and the surrounding areas that have to do with the survival of freedom on that continent, and I say to you: If you stand in the way of representing the people and in the path of representing justice, beware. Beware, for I stand before you and I hold you accountable for failure to implement the will of God.

     You have thought in past centuries that you could grapple with Saint Germain and win. I tell you that I, too, have passed through initiations. And this is the age of the seventh ray. And it is the hour when I fling my challenge in the very teeth of your human creation and your deviltry and your warmongering and your useless pacifism ! And I say to you: You will be judged by the legions of light, and I will give the fiat of the hierarch of light to implement it.

     I go now for a most intense action in Moscow. Let those who will, keep the midnight vigil with the intense calls for the binding and the judgment of World Communism, its agents in the KGB and every other branch, and the cowards and hypocrites who support it from the capitals of every nation. We will see what we will see. And our light will be noticed in Afghanistan.

     I go to thwart their plans, for the staying action of the Lord's hosts to protect Europe even in the hour of her infamous rejection of the armed forces of light! <12>

     Endnote 12: Since August 1981, hundreds of thousands of Western Europeans have held demonstrations protesting the NATO proposal to base 572 U.S. Pershing II and cruise missiles on European soil to deter Soviet missiles now aimed at European capitals. The international "grass roots" peace movement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons is spearheaded by the World Peace Council, an organization described by President Reagan as "bought and paid for by the Soviet Union."

     Sometimes we're so busy handling the problems in our own back yard that we don't see far enough to realize that the real threat is not the local betrayers who have no power, the real threat is the armies supplied by the Soviet Union (with loans from international bankers) to the fallen ones in South America <7> who are directly opposing the embodiment of the seventh root race <8> and the avatars.

     And we have to realize that our ammunition is our books translated into Spanish and our people pushing back the barrier and giving the science of the spoken Word to these people. They are falling by the thousands, and they know not how to defend themselves. And as yet, we have a mere fifty-five advisers in El Salvador. Reagan is proposing more, but he promises everyone, "American troops will not enter combat. We will not fight." It is a line of pacifism .

     When will you fight? Do we have to make Texas a bloodbath? Do we have to wait till they come into America to say, "It's in the best interest of this nation to defend border states and see to it that they are not overcome by Communism?"

     Don't think that I have all the answers. God has the answers. If I were to formulate specific policy for America in Central America, I would sit down and study many days. But I am giving you principles, and I am pointing to Truth, and I am saying at least I know this: what we are doing now is accomplishing very little and it is allowing evil to spawn and multiply and propagate.

     It's like having a cancer gnawing at some lower portion of the body and saying, "I will not deal with it today. I will deal with it tomorrow." And we have been doing that in Central America for too many years.

     And therefore, you must understand that certain military leaders of the world, even of the West, in NATO and in the United States, have already in themselves and in their hearts pronounced the defeat in advance. And they have said, "If the Soviet Union advances to this area of the world, we will do nothing. We will turn our backs, we will not raise a hand. We will let them have that particular space or state or city, for it is not worth the fight. It is not worth risking total planetary holocaust."

     In this very hour and week and month, beloved ones, there have been those at top levels of the nations of freedom who have already said in their hearts, "We will not fight if the Soviets do this."

     Well, all you need to do is look at the map of the world and realize that it must have been said sometime, somewhere. For there are entire nations being swallowed up by the Communists this day where there has not been a hand raised in the defense of the people!

     What about Afghanistan? What about Cuba? What about the nations in the Far East? What about Cambodia and the threat to Thailand? And what about Vietnam? What about the nations of Africa? What about other areas of the world, though small and unheard of, where forces have moved in --- and those who could have turned their backs?

     Why, it happened in Hungary, it happened in Czechoslovakia by prior agreement: "We will not interfere in the internal affairs of the empire of the Soviet Union. We will not interfere in Eastern Europe. We will not stand in the way, for we will live by our accords and our agreements." <7> Blessed ones, such an excuse to not stand for humanity, for light-bearers and freedom-fighters in the hour of their immense courage to stand for the flame of the Buddha!

     I tell you, these were Buddhists in Budapest! --- these hearts of light who absorbed in their own bodies the fire of the fallen ones. They stood and they conquered and they became the saints robed in white. <8> And yet, their opportunity for reincarnation was not cut off, for they desired to live again and to fight again for freedom. And they returned again to Hungary, to Czechoslovakia, and to Poland, and they identified once again with the race karma of those nations and showed the courage to stand against the military might of mechanization man, knowing that the Spirit of Freedom is always greater.

     Yet, where are the armies of the Lord who will defend them with noncompromise? Always economic considerations, political considerations, and above all, fear!

     Fear dominates the international scene as those heads of state, those who are the leaders of nations, are themselves worshipers of the anti-Light, have cast their lot and their weight in with that very dweller on the threshold, and have united the forces of anti-Buddha together with the monied interests of the planet against the children of the Light.

     Do they care for the starving millions? Do they care for those who are hungry --- the dispossessed and the displaced that will risk anything to move away from being brutalized by the Communist hordes? Beloved ones, it must have been preordained and decided in their council chambers, and I tell you it was.

     Thus, understand: when you allow yourself to receive one shovel of dirt within your own time and space, it is the beginning of your entombment in a grave of your own making. To compromise one square mile of freedom on this planet without an outcry is not the way of the peace of the Buddha! And I state it from Shamballa.

     Do not give up your turf! --- neither here nor in any place throughout the planetary body where the Flame of Freedom hallows that ground, where saints and soldiers have walked and fallen and spilled their blood to preserve that land!

     I tell you, beloved hearts, there must be such a fervor and such a cry of freedom that men no longer are fooled by pacifism ; they are no longer fooled by the tales of ultimate threat, ultimate horror, ultimate war, and therefore stupefied into nonaction while the armies of the Soviets move on. You should not allow yourselves or your representatives to kowtow to madmen and the insane who threaten international terror and to destroy the leaders of nations.

     Why, I tell you, there are hearts of fire and Christed ones worthy of the archangels, who are embodied --- serving in the marine corps and the air force, the army and the navy of this nation and other nations of freedom --- to whom the leaders of those nations and the generals of those forces cannot even hold a candle of light!

     It is the very ones who hold the balance of nations who are the youth --- the fervent hearts, the bright and shining ones who go through their paces and their marching and their drills --- in whom there burns a fire of victory! It is they that hold the balance of power of nations. And yet it is as though Christ were hand-tied, hand and foot, and unable to act or stand or perform his mission. It is as though he had been bound for the entire lifetime of the thirty-three years.

     For, as you know, the little people and those of lower rank cannot act except the ones of higher rank give the order. Thus, the system of hierarchy prevails. And the fallen ones in their cowardice, lest they lose their own life and have not another (for they have been prejudged to the final judgment <9> ), do not give the command, do not give the order.

     As it was once said, "Do not fire until you see the whites of their eyes." <10> Blessed ones, bear therefore with me this night the sword Excalibur. For I stand upon the earth and I hold the flame of victory, of defense, and of clear seeing in the matter of the military buildup of nations and that which is necessary, that which is not enough, and that which is too much.

     Above all, every individual heart of light ought to understand, as he understands the path of physical survival in the wilderness, also how to defend oneself under any and all conditions --- how to defend one's family, how to defend one's city, one's citadel, one's community and nation. Thus, beloved ones, the posture of survival and of defense must be the left hand and the right hand of preparedness --- not out of fear and not out of hatred, but out of the peace-commanding presence of the Buddha.

     Therefore, I AM Gautama and I AM at the head of the military complexes of this nation and of all nations. I AM at the head of the armed forces. I AM at the head of those who command the seas in the navies of the nations. I AM at the head of those who command the air in all the air forces of all nations. And I AM at the head of those who are the marines and who go before the rest to hold the balance in fire. I AM at the head of the armies of the elementals --- fire, air, water, and earth. And I AM with the mighty archangels!

     I call to your attention, therefore, the decree that has gone forth for the taking therefore of certain world leaders out of the arena of action because they have moved against the hand of the living God. This is already coming to pass. Yet, I tell you, it must be confirmed and reaffirmed. For this is a prophecy, and all prophecy is fulfilled in the nexus of the heart of sons and daugh-ters of God whose hearts are one with the living God and the emissaries of heaven and the brothers in white.

     Therefore, remember it is necessary to name the beast, as it is a conglomerate of an ideology and a philosophy of pacifism combined with aggression, of a manifestation of death that claims to be for life. For always the liar does promote that he is for Truth, when he himself not only tells the lie but is the embodiment of the Lie and its originator in those fallen ones who long ago swore enmity against the Lord Sanat Kumara --- who is called "the Woman" because Sanat Kumara, the eternal Guru, is the light of Mother to a cosmos, to a planet, and to each heart of light.

     Therefore, it is the divine office of Mother and the understanding of that person of the Ancient of Days whereby you will come to know what is that enmity of the fallen ones against the very womb of the Virgin out of which you have proceeded into physical embodiment, for it is the place of the nourishment of Christ.

     Thus I come before you with my chastening rod concerning the conference of Catholic prelates in the United States that has come forward against the necessary defense of this nation, and accusing of immorality any act of war that must be taken in defense of the individual and the nation. <6> This statement, which is at odds with the administration of this nation under the guidance of Saint Germain, is one more point of division in the body of God in America. And I cite and I expose the serpents wearing the cloth and the garment of the Church who have no understanding whatsoever of the strength of peace or the dharma of the soul to defend the integrity of Christ withinthat person and within that nation!

     I tell you, until Armageddon is through and the final judgment and the binding of the fallen ones is o'er, it is necessary to understand the spiritual warfare against spiritual forces of evil, principalities and powers of fallen angels, and spiritual wickedness in high places. <7> And therefore, what amounts almost to a doctrine of pacifism , what amounts to a denial of the active force of the Woman in this world to defend the Manchild, must be judged by the right hand of the Mother that I AM and of the Son of God and of the Christ within you. For these individuals may influence untold millions to move against the full power of Alpha and Omega in the true active and true passive roles.

     I might say that these individuals who have partaken in this document and the signing thereof have not the least idea of who is The Faithful and True and The Word who leads the armies of heaven against the fallen ones. <8> And if they had the slightest perception of prophecy itself and of the binding of the tares who are the seed of the Evil One, <9> they would recognize that God has already necessitated war itself as an act of the vengeance of Our God against the original perpetrators of murder, death, and the lie, who are the fallen angels.

     And until they be bound and judged, this war must continue. And all of the hosts of the Lord and Light must engage in it by a profound understanding of the strategy of peace and of defense and of the armor of the Lord <10> --- which begins with faith and truth and righteousness and the tube of light and the science of the spoken Word and ultimately, we pray, will never, never, never have to use nuclear weapons in order to bring about peace on earth! For this is our will. [applause]

     We do not desire to see the trampling of foreign armies upon the Holy City, <11> the Holy City which is the very design and destiny of the United Statesof America. We do not desire to see foreign armies on the city of Jerusalem in Israel. We do not desire to see the destruction and loss of life. For this, beloved ones, need not come to pass.

     I desire and command my soldiers of the cross, El Morya's trail blazers,and beloved Saint Germain's freedom-fighters to recognize that there is a warfare that can be fought and that has been extolled and pronounced to you by the Brotherhood, and it is the one whereby the sons of God control the purse strings of the nations and of the world!

     Understand that the control of the divine economy of earth is the necessary control over all of those nations who are determined to spread World Communism around the world. It is the United States of America and the Western nations who feed light, energy, money, armaments, and technology to the beast,therefore empowering the beast to make war against the children of the light.

     Many who should have espoused our cause in the political arena go their way and back away from the challenge. Our assessment is many in America are not capable of carrying the dispensation which you, together with the messenger, have invoked in the past dispensation of these elections. They have not been able to bear the cup, for they are not Keepers of the Flame. And without the dynamic decree of the Word and the sacred science, they have been overrun by the clever archdeceivers, the toilers and the spoilers.

     Thus, we must look again and pray that Keepers of the Flame will realize that this nation shall not be able, ere long, to regain a position of coequality and advancement beyond the Soviet Union militarily, economically, technologically. Beloved hearts, decisions being made, the desire to cut back through the beast of pacifism , will render this nation incapable of defense and subject to any international blackmail that becomes the whim or the fancy of the fallen ones in the Soviet Union.

     You will see how your voice and vote with the Darjeeling Council and the power and momentum of your dynamic decrees, nation by nation --- not the least of which ought to be the United States of America --- can make the difference in world action. I can assure you that the diminishing of the so-called peace movements in Europe and especially in Germany has to do with the stand taken by students all over the world on behalf of Saint Germain, who had the certain knowledge that this nation ought to be protected. This is an instance where the level of attainment and the awareness of the German people themselves was not adequate to deal with the dark forces coming through the Green Peace party. <6>

     Beloved ones of Light, understand that the difference between that level of consciousness of the German people and the level needed for them to deal with the burden placed upon them by these fallen ones was compensated for by the level of attainment of the Lightbearers; the gap was bridged. And the dynamic decrees given by our students in every nation were responsible for the diminishing of that movement of pacifism and for the ongoingness of the policies that were supported by the United States and by the German government. As a result, the U.S. Pershing II and cruise missiles in place represent the determination and the will of God not to allow the Communists to pass into Western Europe and to overtake West Germany.

     I call to legions of Truth, and in the name of the Son of God, I, El Morya, call to the twelve legions of angels of the Lord Christ to descend for the rescue of the churches this day that they may be infilled with thy true Spirit and not the spirits of the night that seize their bodies and their chakras, causing them to writhe or dance or jump or scream or weep.

     I demand, as the Chohan of the First Ray, the exorcism of the churches of those foul spirits and the exorcism of every form of demon taunting them away from the true and living Spirit of the Holy Ghost!

     Maha Chohan, enter them now and purge them and let the living fire of true freedom and true worship be upon them. For these are thy hearts, our Father. Cut them free and let them become fierce disciples, taking the true stand for defense instead of advocating the pacifism of the Devil.

     The world can be a better place right now if people will only come to the awareness of the immense help of the saints crowding the skies in their numberless numbers, ready to intercede at the simplest call. If you have not experienced the intercession of the hosts of the Lord, try him! Prove him now, he says. "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." <7>

     God does not mind that you experiment and try and test him. Realize that he is also testing you. And there are two sides of the fence: God always answers, but if you do not hear, you will have to see to it that by prayer and fasting you deliver yourself from the grossness, then, of your spiritual sensitivities which must be attuned to the higher vibrations.

     Now then, beloved hearts, as for an example (of which there are many), Afghanistan is a gross planetary injustice. Shall we forever hear the cry "Not another Vietnam" and upon this preach a philosophy of pacifism --- pacifism where the individual does not even speak in his own defense? Well, ultimately, pacifism becomes the sleep of sweet death and the devouring of the soul by forces aggressive. It is not a viable philosophy spiritually or materially.

     Peace is a viable philosophy --- Peace with honor. Freedom is a viable philosophy. But whoever gained an inch of ground who did not have to defend that ground from someone else who wanted it more? Beloved ones, even the attainment of the point of personal mastery in a virtue of the Path is something you not only fight for and win but must also sustain by daily endeavor. Thus, life is active. The call goes forth: Let us be up and doing!

     If you have ever seen that God-determination in embodiment, I say, behold it now, beloved ones. For I give to you that intensity of my heart that none shall be lost upon this planet! No, not one soul of God, [not one] Lightbearer or [one] of the holy innocents. They shall not be taken!

     We have cared for them. I have taken them in my arms, sometimes a dozen at a time and then a hundred. I hold them in my arms as they pass from the screen of life aborted. I do not let them go into perdition or into the astral plane. Beloved hearts, I have given the Life of God to them as I would to his Son, for they are that Christ potential and I have never left off as the servant of Christ [in the issue of God]. It was as his servant that I first took up the battle against that Fallen One, that Archdeceiver who desired to make himself as God and led those angels astray.

     Beloved hearts of living flame, it is the seed of his consciousness that lurks in those who have not decried it. Let them all write their disclaimers, for I tell you God is nigh! It is not an hour to be in sympathy with the fallen ones, for those who are tied [to them] will be at the wrong place at the wrong time, I assure you.

     Let them get on the right side of the fence. Let them espouse one cosmic principle for once in a million years. Let them champion some righteous cause and God will give them again renewed hope and faith to overcome that Serpent. Let them perform one kind deed and place themselves in the oncoming Light and feel the cleansing power of the mighty River of Life <9> coming upon them and washing away that expression, that sneer, that mockery they have worn [for] so long.

     They can be saved if they will it so. Let them confess once and for all that their experiment didn't work. Their Great Rebellion didn't work; it did not come to pass. He did not win in heaven, he has not won on earth, and he shall not. For he is bound and no more, <10> and it is the clone and the replica that yet lurks in his [genetic seed sown in his embodied] angels and all of this astral debris that must be taken.

     And therefore let the last [man,] woman and child renounce all association with the cause of compromise, pacifism . And let them come into alignment and see how God will work his miracle --- his miracle of the rebirth of those who have seen the folly yet felt caught, through pride, in their commitment to a cause that is no more! It is passe.

     We are here to clean up the debris. We are here to let souls of Light know it is a time to embody the full-gathered momentum of the hosts of the Lord. It is the hour of heaven meeting earth. It is the hour when, as in the appearance of Mother Mary, the sun approaches earth, <11> this time in the person of Helios. This time it is a spiritual sign and all who have that spiritual attunement will see it everywhere upon earth. They will know of his coming.

     And we particularly desire [to see you] disseminate the information [on] the fallen ones [as they operate] through the various organs of that which has been called "The Order" <1> [in] their plot to create the one-world government. We are determined that you shall understand that plot fully and thoroughly and that you shall oppose it with all of your might and your decrees and also by illumination and education and the spreading abroad of the Teaching. For the establishment of a one-world economy [under the Nephilim power-elite] and a one-world government is the greatest threat to freedom on the planetary body as pertains to the geopolitical configurations in this hour.

     Beloved ones, therefore we appeal to you to see that the advancing [military buildup] of the Soviet Union ([side by side with] the pacifism and indecision on the part of the United States and many other factors on earth) makes necessary the intensification of the light and the power of Freedom. And you will note that I use that word intensification many times over, for you have a power in your heart that is the power of Love.

     We seek to overturn every prophecy of darkness and destruction. We seek this against the odds of the death wish in the very religious movements which have accepted as prophecy the destruction of earth or a final holocaust to precede the coming of Christ. This is a devilish doctrine and the leftover message of Lucifer, who has sworn his own (prior to his second death <6> ) to carry his message of Death and Hell to utterly confuse all Christendom and the Moslem world and the path of Judaism.

     Thus, instead of challenging this darkness of nuclear holocaust, many simply await the day of its coming and have chosen to disarm and become pacifists and to fail to defend the God within. Therefore, the angel, the mighty Archangel Jophiel, will speak to you regarding the education of the world that must come to pass through you.

     The folly of believing that the Soviets will not begin a war is a folly akin to other false psychic predictions. You have heard the testimony of many sources. Now feel the vibration of an Archangel who does freely move in and out of all areas of international intrigue.

     I tell you, beloved, there are madmen in this world and they are sprinkled in every nation, including this one. Therefore, the madmen of this nation are the pacifists who do not understand that the right arm of the Lord is ready to defend those who help themselves. And the madmen of the Soviet Union are the aggressors, paranoid, believing many lies that they themselves have twice told as twice-told tales. These, fearing to be devoured, thus put themselves in a corner where they reason in their irrationality that they must wage war to survive.

     Witness, therefore, Akbar of India, an incarnation of your beloved El Morya. <9> In this life he set the stage of universality in India that has endured to the very present hour; and as you study his life you will know that those who are of the First Ray never shirk their responsibility to enter into the fray and to challenge the evildoers who decade by decade and generation by generation have a continuity of purpose, which is to enslave and imprison the children of the Light in their institutions and in their organizations and controls.

     Blessed ones, you can no longer sit back and watch the world crumble before you and watch the value of your money be destroyed by the manipulators of the system itself. You can no longer therefore think that those who quote me as being a pacifist and a socialist are speaking the truth. I tell you, I am not a pacifist nor am I a socialist! And therefore understand that the doctrines of Marx can never be justified through my parables or through my life, and I state it clearly!

     The American people must defend their right to fulfill their dharma. The only way they can attain enlightenment, the only way they can attain Christhood, is if they have a place prepared where there is a guaranteed opportunity to be free to walk the spiritual path. Therefore, America must defend her freedom. And to do that, she needs physical as well as spiritual defenses! [10-second applause] And let us not neglect the mental, emotional, and psychological defenses as well.

     Meeting the Challenges of History

     History has shown that passivity will never overcome evil. Pacifism has seldom, if ever, achieved peace. Often the opposite results. It is this history and the sense of their destiny in its moving stream that our children must be taught at elementary levels in the schools of our choice.

     Rome's destruction of Carthage in 146 B.C. is an important lesson for our time. It shows the result of negotiating for peace without adequate military strength to back it up. Carthage attempted to meet the Roman threat with appeasement. Perhaps her leaders said, "We will secure a place for ourselves in history."

     Carthage was a prosperous city in North Africa on the Mediterranean, between Libya and Algeria, near the site of modern Tunis. Carthage, once Rome's rival, had been defeated, disarmed, and forced to pay tribute to the empire. Despite this the city had become too prosperous for the tastes of the Romans.

     Cato, presiding over the Roman Senate, advocated its total destruction. He ended every speech he gave in the Senate, on whatever subject, with the words: "Besides, I think that Carthage must be destroyed." <31> The imperialists in the Senate agreed with him. They needed only a pretext to carry out their plan. It came as a result of an attempt by Carthage to defend herself against the repeated raids of Masinissa, king of Numidia, modern Algeria.

     Carthage was bound by treaty to make no war without Rome's consent. She sent ambassadors to Rome to protest Masinissa's many invasions. The Romans told them that since the Carthaginians had come from Phoenicia (which corresponds to modern Lebanon) they were interlopers in Africa and well-armed nations were not required to respect their rights. This was a sentence to slow death by raids and invasion.

     In 151 B.C., Carthage declared war on Numidia in an effort to protect herself. Rome declared war on Carthage. Carthage, though wealthy, was unprepared for war with Rome. She had a small army and navy and no mercenaries or allies.

     Will Durant records how Carthage's attempts at negotiation led to her utter annihilation:

     An embassy [from Carthage] hastened to Rome with authority to meet all demands. The Senate promised that if Carthage would turn over to the Roman consuls in Sicily 300 children of the noblest families as hostages, and would obey whatever orders the consuls would give, the freedom and territorial integrity of Carthage would be preserved. Secretly the Senate bade the consuls carry out the instructions that they had already received.

     The Carthaginians gave up their children with forebodings and laments; the relatives crowded the shores in a despondent farewell; at the last moment the mothers tried by force to prevent the ships from sailing; and some swam out to sea to catch a last glimpse of their children.

     The consuls sent the hostages to Rome, crossed to Utica [a neighbor of Carthage] with army and fleet, summoned the Carthaginian ambassadors, and required of Carthage the surrender of her remaining ships, a great quantity of grain, and all her engines and weapons of war. When these conditions had been fulfilled, the consuls further demanded that the population of Carthage should retire to ten miles from the city, which was then to be burned to the ground.

     The ambassadors argued in vain that the destruction of a city which had surrendered hostages and its arms without striking a blow was a treacherous atrocity unknown to history. They offered their own lives as a vicarious atonement; they flung themselves upon the ground and beat the earth with their heads. The consuls replied that the terms were those of the [Roman] Senate and could not be changed.

     When the people of Carthage heard what was demanded of them they lost their sanity. Parents mad with grief tore limb from limb the leaders who had advised surrendering the child hostages; others killed those who had counseled the surrender of arms; some dragged the returning ambassadors through the streets and stoned them; some killed whatever Italians could be found in the city; some stood in the empty arsenals and wept.

     The Carthaginian Senate declared war against Rome and called all adults men and women, slave or free to form a new army, and to forge anew the weapons of defense. Fury gave them resolution. Public buildings were demolished to provide metal and timber; the statues of cherished gods were melted down to make swords, and the hair of the women was shorn to make ropes. In two months the beleaguered city produced 8,000 shields, 18,000 swords, 30,000 spears, 60,000 catapult missiles, and built in its inner harbor a fleet of 120 ships.

     Three years the city stood siege by land and sea. Again and again the consuls led their armies against the walls, but always they were repulsed; only Scipio Aemilianus, one of the military tribunes, proved resourceful and brave. Late in 147 [B.C.] the Roman Senate and Assembly made him consul and commander, and all men approved.

     Soon afterward Laelius succeeded in scaling the walls. The Carthaginians, though weakened and decimated by starvation, fought for their city street by street, through six days of slaughter without quarter. Harassed by snipers, Scipio ordered all captured streets to be fired and leveled to the ground. Hundreds of concealed Carthaginians perished in the conflagration.

     At last the population, reduced from 500,000 to 55,000, surrendered. Hasdrubal, their general, pleaded for his life, which Scipio granted, but his wife, denouncing his cowardice, plunged with her sons into the flames. The survivors were sold as slaves, and the city was turned over to the legions for pillage.

     Reluctant to raze it, Scipio sent to Rome for final instructions; the Senate replied that not only Carthage, but all such of her dependencies as had stood by her were to be completely destroyed, that the soil should be plowed and sown with salt, and a formal curse laid upon any man who should attempt to build upon the site. For seventeen days the city burned. <32>

     Rome wanted to teach the world a lesson. And she did.

     We need to study and understand the lessons of Carthage. Or else we shall come to know the truth of George Santayana's statement, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." <33> Great civilizations come to an end when they cease to defend themselves against external challenges. Our bodies come to an end when we can no longer defend them against the external challenges of disease, the last plagues and death. If you are vulnerable to an invading virus against which you have no defense, you may cease to occupy your body temple and lose this physical platform of your soul's evolution.

     You see, this is the moment of victory and the moment of God-mastery: when you can see and hear all that has been laid before you today, <8> [what] with the ultimate powers of this world amassed for world destruction and the ultimate karma perchance descending, when all of this does not deter you and you determine to pass through the eye of the needle and through a tunnel of darkness and to hold before you [the vision of] that light at the end of the tunnel[ it is indeed the moment of victory and the moment of God-mastery]!

     Do you see, beloved, [that] it is the perspective of your cosmic history and all that you have endured in past ages when you have not had the dispensations of the Ascended Masters that makes you fighters in the spirit, in the heart, in the soul of being? And this against the backdrop of your countrymen and those of many nations who have become passive and pacifists and are ready to roll over before the threats of the fallen ones!

     Blessed ones, they allow their fear to overtake them. And they are no longer willing to fight, as Arjuna was not willing to fight until the Lord Krishna gave to him the vision of the dharma, the duty to fulfill one's reason for being. <9> Will you allow it to be taken from you? Will you allow it to be snatched from you at the hour of victory after a million years of dealing with these conditions? I tell you, nay! You will not, not if I know you as the Lightbearers and Keepers of the Flame of Liberty upon earth!

     Yes, I will walk in the living flame of peace. I shall be a true pilgrim of peace. And I shall show the two-edged sword dividing the Real from the Unreal, binding the engines and elements of war.

     Yes, I know the meaning of true peace and I know it is not pacifism . I know that the power of peace will swallow up the records of war upon this planet as I take the mantra:

     Peace, be still and know that I AM God!

     Peace, be still and know that I AM God!

     Peace, be still and know that I AM God!

     Human life is of ultimate value! For it is the lowest level to which anyone can descend and still have a soul and still become one with God. When you go below the human species, that option is not there. Therefore know, beloved, that many upon earth in human bodies have descended as far as they can go and still have opportunity. Opportunity will not come to the unpeaceful ones.

     Thus, may you be champions, warriors of peace and understand that pacifism is a perversion of peace! Peace is the guardian action of the Sixth Ray. Peace takes care of life. Peace enters in and binds those who deny life, who deny the disciple, who deny the Guru, who deny their oneness with God. Peace enters in where those pretending to be chelas and are not chelas shall find themselves in outer darkness! <3>

     Come! Give me your hand. I will take you with me this night. I will show you where the sun rises and where the sun sets as we make our rounds about the globe and stand in pillars of Wisdom's flame. These pillars are, in effect and in actuality, the bodies of angels of Wisdom's flame.

     That you might know this earth as we know it, that you might see the suffering as we see it, that you might have a sense of the dimension of that suffering along with a sense of co-measurement --- this is one reason for my coming, and yet it is not the only reason. For I come, beloved, so that you might not make the mistakes of the Tibetans and their leader, who followed a path of pacifism even in the face of the all-out war waged against them by the Chinese Communists. <2> I come so that you might not be passive before your own dweller-on-the-threshold or the carnal mind. For those devotees of East and West who are unwilling to slay the dweller or the ego of self slither back into the pits with the snakes and know not that they are, each and every one, potentially sons of God.