The Resurrection of the Christ Within You - Intro Part 2

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The Resurrection of the Christ Within You - Intro Part 2

 

(xxiii) Though I emphasize the message of Lord Jesus in the New Testament and

the yoga science of God-union delineated by Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad

Gita as the 'summum bonum' of the way to God-realization, I honor the diverse

expressions of truth flowing from the One God through the scriptures of His

various emissaries. All such scriptures have a threefold meaning--material,

mental, and spiritual. They are divine wells of " living waters " that can quench

humanity's thirsts of body, mind, and soul. (xxiv) The timeless revelations sent

by God through illumined prophets serve human beings on each of the three levels

of their nature.

 

The material meaning of the teachings of Christ emphasizes their value as

applied to physical and social well-being--the eternal laws of right living

pertinent to man's personal, familial, business, community, national, and

international duties as a member of God's worldwide human family.

 

The mental interpretation explains the application of Christ's teaching for

the improvement of man's mind and understanding--development of his intellectual

and psychological faculties, his thoughts and moral values.

 

Interpreted in relation to the spiritual side of man's being, Jesus'

teachings point out the way to the kingdom of God--personal realization of each

soul's infinite divine potentials as an immortal child of God, through devout

communion and ultimate oneness with the Heavenly Father-Creator of all.

 

Although both the material and the psychological interpretations of

scriptures are necessary for the right conduct of a balanced, God-centered life,

it is the spiritual interpretations that the God-sent emissaries of scriptural

content intended as of supreme importance. Even the most materially or

intellectually accomplished individual may fail to make a true success of life.

Rather, it is the person of spiritual attainment who scientifically achieves

all-round success, which means to be happy, healthy, intelligent, contented, and

truly prosperous with blissful, all-fulfilling wisdom through God-communion.

 

The Bible and the Bhagavad Gita are satisfyingly complete, containing the

science of life, the eternal principles of truth and philosophy of living that

make life beautiful and harmonious. Philosophy is the love of wisdom; religion,

as taught by the scriptural prophets, is likewise devotion to highest truth. The

personal realization of truth is the science behind all sciences. But for most

persons, religion has devolved to a matter of belief only. One believes in

Catholicism, another believes in some Protestant denomination, others assert

belief that the Jewish or Hindu or Muslim or Buddhist religion is the true way.

The science of religion identifies the universal truths common to all--the basis

of religion--and teaches how by their practical application persons can build

their lives according to the Divine Plan. India's teaching of 'Raja Yoga', the

" royal " science of the soul, supersedes the orthodoxy of religion by setting

forth systematically the practice of those methods that are universally

necessary for the perfection of every individual, regardless of race or creed.

 

There is a vast difference between theoretical religion and philosophy and

their actual practice. Practically speaking, philosophy may be divided into

three parts--ethics, psychology, and metaphysics. These three departments are

covered in both the Hindu and Christian Bibles.

 

Ethics--scriptural truth as applied to material life--sets forth the science

of human duty, moral laws, how to behave.

 

Psychology--truth applied to mental well-being--teaches one how to analyze

himself; for no spiritual progress is possible without introspection and

self-study by which one endeavors to find out what he is so that he can correct

himself and become what he should be.

 

Metaphysics--truths pertaining to the spiritual dimension of life--explains

the nature of God and the science of knowing Him.

 

These three, taken together and put into practice, constitute religion. The

ethical moral principles prescribed in the New Testament are the same as in the

Gita. The psychology and the metaphysics of these two scriptures, rightly

interpreted, likewise coincide in every respect. The superficial difference is

that the Hindu scriptures--of which the Gita is a sublime summation--were

written in a higher age of civilization, against a background of greater

understanding among the general populace. Though Jesus himself embodied the

highest wisdom, he expressed truth in simple, concise language; whereas the

scriptures of India are composed in Sanskrit terminology of extraordinary depth

and scientific precision. Point by point I have compared the salient message of

the Bible and Hindu scriptures, and have found only harmonious unity between

them. It is from this understanding that these explanations of Christ's words

have been written. By way of example, some parallel or complementary verses from

the Bhagavad Gita are cited. I have given a detailed explanation of these verses

and the entirety of the Gita in a separate work,* to which I encourage readers

to refer for additional insight into the truths implicit but not elaborated in

Jesus' words that have come down to us in the four canonical Gospels. Had Jesus

himself written his teachings, they might indeed have been expressed in greater

depth than in the generalities of a conversation with his disciples or a

discourse to the multitudes. (xxvi) Certainly in the Revelation of St. John we

are led by means of metaphor into the profound insights of the yoga science in

which Jesus initiated his advanced disciple John, and others, whose

consciousness thereby ascended to the exalted Self-realized state of the kingdom

of God within.

 

The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within You) Volume

I, Introduction-Part 2, pg. xxiii-xxvi.

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

ISBN-13:978-0-87612-557-1

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

*God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita - Royal Science of God-Realization

(published by Self-Realization Fellowship).