Old Testament track · step 5 of 6 · matching NT step →
Old Testament · Step 5
Walking with God: abiding states
The Hebrew Bible has no word for a permanent state of realisation, but it describes people whose whole life was a walk with God: Enoch, who “was not; for God took him”, Noah, Elijah taken up in a whirlwind, and the psalmist who set the LORD “always before me”. This page reads them beside the Indian ideals of sahaja (natural, effortless) samadhi and the jīvanmukta, the one liberated while living.
1. Enoch and Noah “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24 · 6:9)
Genesis 5:24
| KJVpublic domain | “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And Enoch walketh habitually with God, and he is not, for God hath taken him.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” | source |
ESV footnote: “Septuagint was not found”.
Genesis 6:9
| KJVpublic domain | “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “These [are] births of Noah: Noah [is] a righteous man; perfect he hath been among his generations; with God hath Noah walked habitually.” | source |
Scholarly note
The brief notice about Enoch inspired a large later literature: “He was considered the author of the Book of Enoch”, which is quoted in the New Testament letter of Jude (Wikipedia, “Enoch”). Hebrews 11:5 reads “took him” as not seeing death. Rashi reads it the other way: God “took him away quickly and made him die before his full time” (Rashi on Genesis 5:24, Sefaria). The Hebrew text itself is open.
“Walked with God” describes a way of life, not one experience. That is close to Ramana Maharshi’s definition of the abiding state: “Remaining in the primal, pure natural state without effort is Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samādhi” (Talks, Talk 391). The Bible names a relationship kept up day after day; Ramana names a state of being that does not lapse. Both describe something that does not come and go like visions.
2. “I have set the LORD always before me” (Psalm 16:8)
Psalm 16:8
| KJVpublic domain | “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “I did place Jehovah before me continually, Because -- at my right hand I am not moved.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “I keep my eyes always on the LORD. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” | source |
Jewish interpretive tradition
From this verse comes the shiviti, a plaque or panel placed in synagogues and homes as a focus for contemplation. Rabbi Moses Isserles (d. 1572) expanded on it: “I have set the Lord before me constantly”; this is a major principle in the Torah and amongst the virtues of the righteous who walk before God” (quoted in Wikipedia, “Shiviti”).
“When a man, O son of Prithâ! abandons all the desires of his heart, and is pleased in his self only and by his self, he is then called one of steady mind.”— Gita 2.55, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“I shall not be moved” and the Gita’s “one of steady mind” (sthita-prajña) describe the same unshakeable steadiness. The psalm rests it on God at one’s right hand; the Gita on contentment “in his self only”. The shiviti is a practice of constant remembrance, which Indian traditions call smaraṇa.
3. What the LORD requires (Micah 6:8)
Micah 6:8
| KJVpublic domain | “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “He hath declared to thee, O man, what [is] good; Yea, what is Jehovah requiring of thee, Except -- to do judgment, and love kindness, And lowly to walk with thy God?” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” | source |
Here “walk” (halak) returns: “walk humbly with thy God”. Justice, mercy and humility are the fruit of the walk. Indian teachers judge a jīvanmukta the same way, by kindness and absence of ego, not by states reported (see the Gita’s list of the devotee who is “dear to me”, 12.13–14, on NT Step 6).
4. Elijah taken up (2 Kings 2:11 · Malachi 4:5)
2 Kings 2:11
| KJVpublic domain | “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And it cometh to pass, they are going, going on and speaking, and lo, a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and they separate between them both, and Elijah goeth up in a whirlwind, to the heavens.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.” | source |
Udana and the upward flight: Woods III.39
| Woods 1914III.39 · public domain | “As a result of mastering the Udana there is no adhesion to water or mud or thorns or similar objects, and [at death] the upward flight.” | source |
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“Divine Light, please withdraw this, my humble bodily picture, into Thyself, even as Elijah was drawn up to heaven by a flame.”— Yogananda, Autobiography, ch. 30 · source
“Elijah, Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of KRIYA or a similar technique, by which they caused their bodies to dematerialize at will.”— Yogananda, Autobiography, ch. 26 · source
Yogic tradition speaks of mahāsamādhi, “the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one’s body at the moment of death” (Wikipedia, “Samadhi”, Mahāsamādhi), and Patanjali mentions an “upward flight” at death. Yogananda reads Elijah in that light. That is his interpretation. In Kings, Elijah is taken by God in a whirlwind, and he does not choose the moment. In Jewish practice Elijah is expected at every Passover Seder and every circumcision; Malachi’s promise keeps him “alive” in hope.
Malachi 4:5
| KJVpublic domain | “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “Lo, I am sending to you Elijah the prophet, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful.” | source |
In Hebrew Bibles this verse is Malachi 3:23.
5. Moses: “his eye was not dim” (Deuteronomy 34:5–7)
Deuteronomy 34:5-7
| KJVpublic domain | “So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And Moses, servant of the Lord, dieth there, in the land of Moab, according to the command of Jehovah; and He burieth him in a valley in the land of Moab, over-against Beth-Peor, and no man hath known his burying place unto this day. And Moses [is] a son of a hundred and twenty years when he dieth; his eye hath not become dim, nor hath his moisture fled.” | source |
Moses dies at God’s word with his strength intact, and “no man knoweth of his sepulchre”. Indian traditions tell similar stories of saints who leave the body in full strength at a time they foresee. The parallel is of tone; Deuteronomy is about the end of an era and the passing of leadership to Joshua.
New Testament track: Step 5 · Abiding states (“abide in me”, “I live; yet not I”).
Eastern perspective · Upanishads
Walking with God and “becoming immortal”
Enoch walks with God “and he was not”; Elijah goes up in the whirlwind. Indian texts also describe people who pass beyond death, but by knowledge rather than by being taken.
“The knot of the heart is loosened, All doubts are cut off, And one’s deeds (karman) cease When He is seen—both the higher and the lower.”— Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.8, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“He, verily, who knows that supreme Brahma, becomes very Brahma. … He crosses over sorrow. He crosses over sin (pāpman). Liberated from the knots of the heart, he becomes immortal.”— Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.9, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“When are liberated all The desires that lodge in one’s heart, Then a mortal becomes immortal! Therein he reaches Brahma! As the slough of a snake lies on an ant-hill, dead, cast off, even so lies this body. But this incorporeal, immortal Life (prāṇa) is Brahma indeed, is light indeed.”— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.7, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
Enoch’s story is told in one line; the Upanishads write whole dialogues about the same question: what is it to live so close to the deathless that death no longer has the last word? The Upanishad’s answer is release of desire and knowledge of Brahman; Genesis says only that Enoch “walked with God”. The quiet of that phrase may be the closest the Hebrew Bible comes to the Upanishads’ “the knot of the heart is loosened”.
Where the traditions differ
Genesis and Kings tell of God taking a person; the Upanishads teach a realisation open to anyone who knows. The Hebrew Bible says almost nothing about an inner state, and later Jewish tradition reads Enoch in very different ways (Rashi even reads “he was not” as an early death).
Light thread
“And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”— Daniel 12:3, KJV · source
“They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament”: the Hebrew Bible’s clearest promise that the wise themselves become light. “This … immortal Life is Brahma indeed, is light indeed” (Brihadaranyaka 4.4.7).