The Meaning of the Story

This story taken literally would be so ridiculous as to be positively absurd; hence, it is necessary to look for a deeper meaning. The writer was trying to teach a Cosmic lesson. He was attempting to teach the lesson of right and wrong.

The Garden of Eden typifies life in its pure essence. Adam means man in general, -- generic man. Man exists in pure life and has all of its agencies at his command. This is the meaning of his being told to till the soil and enjoy the fruits of his labor.

The tree of life is our real being and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil means the possibility of dual

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choice, -- that is, we can choose even that which is not for our best good. Man is warned not to eat of the fruit of this tree for it is destructive.

Eve, the woman in the case, was made from a rib of Adam. This story suggests the dual nature of man as a psychological being. The woman is made from the man. She must have been in him else she could not have been made out of him and the story clearly states that she was taken from his being.

Adam and Eve are potential in all of us. The serpent represents the Life Principle viewed from a material basis and beguiles us in this way; he says that evil is as real as good; that the devil has equal power with God; that negation equals positive goodness and that the universe is dual in its nature. From the acceptance of this argument we experience both good and evil. And should we come full orbed into individuality without having learned the lesson of unity we should live forever in a state of bondage. This is the meaning of God saying, "he shall become as one of us and live forever." The eternal Mind does not wish us to live forever in bondage and this is what would happen unless we first learn the lesson of right and wrong.

And so that part of us which can be fooled eats of the fruit of dual experience and in so doing reveals its own nakedness. The native state of man is one of purity, peace and perfection, and it is only when he can compare these with impurity, distress and imperfection, that he is revealed as naked. Emerson tells us that virtue does not know it is virtuous. It is only when virtue tastes of impurities that it becomes naked and must hide from itself.

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The voice of God, walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, means the introspective and meditative part of us, which, in its moments of pure intuition and reason, sees the illusion of a life apart from God or Good.

Error is ever a coward before Truth, and cannot hide itself from Reality, which sees through everything, encompasses all and penetrates even the prison walls of the mind with Its clear effulgence.

The conversation between God, and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden represents the arguments that go on in our own minds, when we try to realize the truth. These arguments are familiar to all and need not be enumerated.

The expulsion from the Garden is a necessary and logical outcome of tasting of dual experience. If we believe in both good and evil we must experience both.