Translation from German by Robert Hutwohl[1]

Tor those who understand the Bible correctly, it is a textbook of occult science and a guide to the path that leads to perfection and immortality. The stories contained in it do not refer merely to external events that once took place somewhere in Palestine, but are pictorial representations of what takes place within every human being when he is on the path of spiritual development. Such representations include the three temptations of Jesus in the desert. They are three tests to which everyone who wishes to become a disciple of wisdom is subjected, and which only a few pass.

          “After Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, and was hungry, the tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.’ But Jesus answered, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”

          When the higher nature begins to stir in man, he also becomes hungry for what is necessary for its nourishment. The animal part of man knows nothing of this, it only desires material or intellectual nourishment, as is appropriate for his material body and human mind, but the immortal part of man desires the Word of God within to guide him and the light of truth to nourish him. As the Indian sage Śankarācārya [Śaṅkarācārya] taught more than two thousand years ago, the distinction between what is eternal and what is transitory is the first condition for the attainment of wisdom, and the test therefore consists in the novice recognizing his higher nature and desiring what is necessary for its nourishment and growth. Each part in the human composition feeds on what it was born of and ultimately returns to its origins. But man as a whole shares the fate of that part with which he is intimately connected and has become identical. The material body needs material nourishment, the mind intellectual nourishment, the soul heavenly nourishment. The body returns to earth, the soul to God. Some spend their whole lives only concerned with satisfying their sensual desires, others only with enriching their knowledge, but those who surrender to the divine absorb the divine into themselves and have found the true bread of life.

          Now when the light of wisdom begins to dawn in the soul and man has learned to discern, the danger of spiritual pride arises, to which so many fall victim. The second temptation refers to this:

          “Then the devil took him into the holy city and set him on an outcrop in the temple. And he said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He has given his angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they will bear you up.’ ” Jesus said, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

          For those who have reached the sanctuary of the temple, the delusion of selfhood and self-love have disappeared, they are completely filled with the knowledge of God, but those who have only reached the annex or forecourt are not yet free; nevertheless, a new world opens up for them. The novice who has awakened to true consciousness finds himself surrounded in material existence by a world of dreamers. He has learned to distinguish the divine from the animal within himself and now sees that most people, no matter how educated and lovable they appear, are nevertheless at the animal level and therefore below him, since they do not know the higher, spiritual life. The urge now easily awakens in him to consider himself better than others and to try to exert his power over them. Perhaps he imagines that he is called to improve and convert people, he wants to be an authority, a leader and a guide, and so the delusion of scholarship and priestly conceit are born. He considers himself a higher being and wants to try his power. He thinks he cannot fall, but the higher he climbs, the deeper is his fall; there are no other devils than fallen angels.

          The true sage who passes this test knows that the higher powers which are beginning to develop in him belong not to his mortal self but to the God-man, and from this knowledge springs his modesty; he has nothing to desire for himself and no reason to be proud of his possessions. He considers his person only as an instrument of the divine will and recognizes the truth of the divine word which says: “Without me ye can do nothing.”

          The devil’s father is self-delusion and his mother is self-love. Overcoming this is the hardest of all trials.

          “After this the devil took him up on a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, ‘All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ ” Jesus said to him, ‘Get back, Satan, for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’ ”

          Anyone who wants to attain true knowledge must love the truth for its own sake and not consider the advantages it brings. Anyone who loves the truth for these advantages does not worship the truth but himself. Egoism is the shadow that hides the light of truth from man, and the greater the selfishness, the greater the shadow. A person who does good only to gain prestige, to gain business advantages, etc., is a hypocrite and will be despised if he is recognized. Much worse is the case with the person who tries to draw the divine down to himself in order to make it serve his personal ends, or who uses holy powers for unholy ends; for this is the way to black magic. The ancients said that truth is a jealous goddess who tolerates no rivals. He who loves anything outside her loves error, and she hides herself from it. But he who loves her alone and surrenders himself to her without reserve, she reveals herself in her purest light and showers him with all her gifts. Some people imagine that they love God, but they see him only as an object of exploitation, or as something from which they expect personal gain or the fulfillment of personal desires. The spirit of every religion is lost when, instead of serving God and doing his will, he is branded as a church servant whom one uses to beg gifts from him; the spirit of true religion, that is, selfless, free love of the Supreme, is rarely found; where it is, divine grace in all its fullness comes of its own accord. The divine can only be attained through union with the deity, and where this union takes place, self-conceit and all personal desires cease. Anyone who is still bound by personal desires is not free.

          Śankarācārya [Śaṅkarācārya] teaches that he who wishes to attain perfection should not expect any reward for himself in spiritual matters, either in this world or in any other existence, and the pious Thomas à Kempis says: “All is vanity. There is nothing true in the world except to love and serve God.” True wisdom does not consist in the possession of wealth or in the possession of a great deal of knowledge, but in choosing the good and despising the evil. But this can only be done by someone who has attained the knowledge of good and evil, and this knowledge is only attained through experience, i.e., through the distinction between God and nature; for only through this does man attain the freedom of choice to be a servant of God or a slave of nature.

Note:

[1] The Three Temptations by Dr. Franz Hartmann [Die drei Versuchungen. Von Dr. Franz Hartmann. Theosophischer Wegweiser 8, no. 3 (December 1906), 93-98{This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than minor typos, translation from German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}