necessity of the pains of humanity, which are a part of its collective
Karma. He would have been perfectly able to live a life absolutely
free from the pains, trials and troubles that are the common lot of
Man, owing to the Race-Karma. He would have escaped persecution,
physical and mental pains, and even death, had He so elected. But He
chose these things of His own free will, in order to accomplish the
great work that He saw before Him as a World-Savior.

In order for Jesus to enact His part as the Redeemer and Savior of the
race, it was necessary for Him to take upon Himself His share of the
Karma of the race--virtually taking upon Himself the "sins of the
world." Before He could lift the burden from the race of men, He must
become a man among men.

To understand this more clearly we must remember that to a being such
as Jesus--a soul free from Karma--there would be no such thing as
temptation, longings, desires, or any of the mental states of the
ordinary man with the Karma of successive past incarnations resting
within him as seeds of action pressing forward ever for unfoldment and
expression.

Jesus, the free soul, would have been practically an outside observer
of the world's affairs, and not influenced by any of its ordinary
incentives to action. In this state He could have aided the world as a
teacher and instructor, but He would not have been able to accomplish
His great task of Redeeming the world, in its highest spiritual
significance, as we shall see as we proceed. It was necessary for Him
to take upon Himself the burden of the earth-life in order to become
the Savior of the people of the earth.

The occult teachings inform us that during His sojourn abroad, Jesus
was simply a teacher, with but a dim perception of His real mission.
But gradually He began to experience periods of Illumination in which
He recognized His real nature and the difference between Himself and
other men. Then came to Him the conviction of the mighty work that lay
before Him in the redemption of the race, and He began to see the
necessity of entering into the Karmic circle of the race in order to
carry out the plan. This came gradually, by slow degrees, and the
final sacrifice was made only in the Wilderness after His Baptism by
John.

In the Wilderness, after His long fast and His days of meditation, the
way opened up for Him to take upon Himself the burden of the Karma of
the earth people. In that scene of the most tremendo