The Resurrection of the Christ Within You - Intro Part 4

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Before reading Intro Part 4, it should be known that Paramahansa Yogananda

(January 5, 1893 - March 7, 1952) was thirty years of age when Shri Mataji

Nirmala Devi was born, in 1923. Shri Mataji basically started her Sahaja work in

the 1970's. So, Paramahansa Yogananda would not have heard that the incarnation

of the Comforter had been born. Neither had anyone else in 1952 heard that the

Christian Comforter had been born, as Shri Mataji had not yet declared that She

was the incarnation of the Adi Shakti.

 

In the remainder of this Introduction, Paramahansa Yogananda explains a few

things (including the spiritual lineage through which he did his spiritual

work). He writes about his personal relationship and experience with Jesus and

how that has enabled him to write Volume I & II of 'The Second Coming of Christ

(The Resurrection of the Christ Within You)' described on the front cover of

this book as: " A revelatory commentary on the original teachings of Jesus " .

 

i don't know how many years ago before i came to Sahaja Yoga, that i read

Paramahansa Yogananda's 'Autobiography of a Yogi'. Reading it was a profound

experience for me due to its spiritual depth. i believe this book will have no

less effect due to its great spiritual depth, also.

 

Here now, is the conclusion of the Introduction and the Discourses will follow

in future posts.

 

regards,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

The Resurrection of the Christ Within You - Intro Part 4

 

(pg.xxvii) It is an erroneous assumption of limited minds that great ones such

as Jesus, Krishna, and other divine incarnations are gone from the earth when

they are no longer visible to human sight. This is not so. When a liberated

master has dissolved his body in Spirit, and yet manifests in form to receptive

devotees (as Jesus has appeared throughout the centuries since his passing, such

as to Saint Francis, Saint Teresa, and many others of East and West), it means

he has an ongoing role to play in the destiny of the world. Even when masters

have completed the specific role for which they they took on a physical

incarnation, it is the divinely ordained task of some to look after the welfare

of humanity and assist in guiding its progress.

 

Jesus Christ is very much alive and active today. (pg.xxviii) In Spirit and

occasionally taking on a flesh-and-blood form, he is working unseen by the

masses for the regeneration of the world. With his all-embracing love, Jesus is

not content merely to enjoy his blissful consciousness in Heaven. He is deeply

concerned for mankind and wishes to give his followers the means to attain the

divine freedom of entry into God's Infinite Kingdom. He is disappointed because

many are the churches and temples founded in his name, often prosperous and

powerful, but where is the communion that he stressed--actual contact with God?

Jesus wants temples to be established in human souls, first and foremost; then

established outwardly in physical places of worship. Instead, there are

countless huge edifices with vast congregations being indoctrinated in

churchianity, but few souls who are really in touch with Christ through deep

prayer and meditation.

 

To reestablish God in the temples of souls through revival of the original

teachings of God-communion as propounded by Christ and Krishna is why I was sent

to the West by Mahavatar Babaji, the deathless Yogi-Christ of modern India,

whose existence was revealed to the world at large for the first time in 1946 in

'Autobiography of a Yogi':

 

" Babaji is ever in communion with Christ; together they send out vibrations

of redemption and have planned the spiritual technique of salvation for this

age. The work of these two fully illumined masters--one with a body, and one

without a body--is to inspire the nations to forsake wars, race hatreds,

religious sectarianism, and the boomerang evils of materialism. Babaji is well

aware of the trend of modern times, especially of the influence and complexities

of Western civilization, and realizes the necessity of spreading the

self-liberations of yoga equally in the West and in the East. " [1]

 

It was Mahavatar Babaji who, in consonance with the wish of Christ, devolved

upon me the tremendous task of properly interpreting for the world the profound

meaning of Jesus' words. In 1894 Babaji instructed my guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar,

to write a comparative study of the harmony between the Christian and Hindu

scriptures from the point of view of India's 'Sanatana Dharma', eternal truth.

[2] Babaji further told my Guru that I would be sent to him to train for my

mission in the West: to teach, side by side, original Christianity as taught by

Jesus Christ and original Yoga as taught by Bhagavan Krishna.

 

For uncounted millenniums, India has been the spiritual lightland of the

earth. It is in India that the divine soul-science of yoga--union with God

through direct personal communion with Him--has been preserved. That is why

Jesus went to India as a youth, and why he returned to India and conferred with

Babaji for the spiritual evolution of the world. Time will testify to this

truth, that they have given to the world through the 'Kriya Yoga' teachings of

Self-Realization Fellowship (Yogoda Satsanga Society of India) the techniques of

meditation by which each soul can reunite with God through inner realization of

the universal Christ-Krishna Consciousness.

 

The promise of Jesus to send the Holy Ghost after he was gone [3] few in the

Christian world have understood. Holy Ghost is the sacred, invisible vibratory

power of God that actively sustains the universe: the Word, or 'Aum', Cosmic

Vibration, the Great Comforter, the Savior from all sorrows. Within the Holy

Ghost Cosmic Vibration is the all-pervading Christ, the Son or Consciousness of

God immanent in creation. The method of contacting this Cosmic Vibration, the

Holy Ghost, is for the first time being spread worldwide by means of definite

meditation techniques of the 'Kriya Yoga' science. Through the blessing of

communion with the Holy Ghost, the cup of human consciousness is expanded to

receive the ocean of Christ Consciousness. (pg.xxx) The adept in the practice of

the science of 'Kriya Yoga' who consciously experiences the presence of the Holy

Ghost Comforter and merges in the Son, or immanent Christ Consciousness, attains

thereby realization of God the Father and entry into the infinite kingdom of

God.

 

Christ will thus appear appear a second time in the consciousness of every

devout adept who masters the technique of contacting the Holy Ghost, the

bestower of indescribable blissful comfort in Spirit. Those who have spiritual

ears to hear, let them hear that the promise of Jesus Christ to send the Holy

Ghost, the Comforter, is being fulfilled. These teachings have been sent to

explain the truth as Jesus intended it to be known in the world--not to give a

new Christianity, but to give the real Christ-teaching: how to become like

Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one's Self.

 

To interpret the words of Jesus, not according to whim or dogmatic emotionalism

or theological rationalization, but as he meant them, one must be in tune with

him. One must know what Christ was and is; and that can be understood only in

rapport with his state of Christ Consciousness.

 

Identifying myself with the consciousness of Jesus, I have felt what he felt

when he spoke to his disciples and to the crowds as recorded in the Gospels.

What I have tried to convey are the thoughts and consciousness of Jesus that

were behind his words when he uttered them. I commune with Christ and ask him:

" I don't want to interpret the Bible from my own views. Will you interpret it? "

Then he comes to me.

 

In attunement with Christ in ecstasy and in spirit, I have taken down his

explanations to the best of my ability as they came through me; those

revelations are written in this treatise. I do not explain. I see. I do not tell

you what I think, but what I am led to say by inner realization.

 

Many of Jesus' sayings and parables, which have undergone transformations due

to mistranslation from the Aramaic, I did not understand at first reading. [4]

(pg.xxxi) But as I prayed and attuned myself with him, I received the meaning

directly from him. Revelations that I never expected have been given to me;

little did I dream what wealth of truth lay concealed. I believe that readers of

this book will find that meanings buried twenty centuries have been brought out

here for the first time, interpretations of the words of Jesus as he would talk

to the people of today--truths he conveyed to his disciples and which he wants

understood by devotees of the world throughout all time. Those who are receptive

will feel through direct perception the message that Christ is speaking to them;

for all I have done is receive and convey the fullness of his thoughts and

consciousness.

 

My singular desire to discern rightly the true meaning of Christ's words was

given wondrous confirmation one night during a period when I was working on

these interpretations. It was in the Hermitage at Encinitas, California. I was

sitting in my darkened room in meditation, praying deeply from my soul, when

suddenly the blackness gave way to a celestial opal-blue effulgence. The entire

room was like an opal flame. In that light the radiant form of the blessed Lord

Jesus appeared.

 

(pg.xxxii) His face was divine. His appearance was of a young man in his

twenties, with sparse beard and moustache; his long black hair, parted in the

middle, had a golden light about it. His feet were not touching the floor. His

eyes were the most beautiful, the most loving eyes I have ever seen. The whole

universe I saw glistening in those eyes. They were infinitely changing, and with

each transition of expression I intuitively understood the wisdom conveyed. In

his glorious eyes I felt the power that upholds and commands the myriad worlds.

 

As he gazed down at me, a Holy Grail appeared at his mouth. It descended to

my lips and touched them; then went up again to Jesus. After a few moments of

rapt silent communion, he said to me: " Thou dost drink of the same cup of which

I drink. "

 

At that I bowed down. I was joyous beyond dreams to receive the testimony of

his blessings, of his presence. Exactly the words that he said to me in this

vision he also said to Thomas, which I never read before. [5] His words meant

that I was drinking of his wisdom through the Holy Grail of his perceptions

which he has dropped in my consciousness, and he was pleased. He approved very

dearly and blessed me for writing these interpretations. This I can say without

pride, because the interpretation of Christ's words herein is not mine. It has

been given to me. I am happy this book is coming through me; but I am not the

author. It is Christ. I am only the vehicle through which it is explained.

 

(pg.xxxiii) I hear Christ in the land of my inspiration; I behold Christ

speaking to me all the eternal wisdom he intended to convey within his pregnant

words. Even when urged by well-meaning British teachers in my youth, I never

read the New Testament, except for a few passages; for had I done so, theology

under their tutelage would have blinded my vision and prejudiced my hearing, and

I could not have heard Christ's voice or seen him speak. Now I rejoice as I will

always long to rejoice, to hear Christ speak to me his words of life, truth, and

eternal liberation for all.

 

Jesus said, " We speak that we do know, " [6] and through this new

interpretation I feel certain that people will be enabled to understand that

true knowledge, the wisdom-realizations, which he meant the world to have.

Therefore, in spite of multitudinous interpretations of his words already

written by others, I believe that Christ has inspired me to lift the veil of

misunderstanding and misinterpretation of his teachings and utter them anew in

their native purity, divested of misconceptions, and stress their applicability

to the changed conditions and life of modern civilization. The people of today

should break through the dark glass of theology--intellectual knowledge about

God--and perceive God directly. [7] Such is my conviction, in thus writing the

first thorough study by an Oriental of the words of Christ, who also was born in

an Oriental land and who spent many years in India.

 

Universal Christ Consciousness appeared in the vehicle of Jesus; and now,

through the Self-Realization 'Kriya Yoga' teachings of meditation and these

intuitionally received scriptural interpretations, the Christ Consciousness is

coming a second time to manifest in the consciousness of true seekers of God.

 

As you read the pages of 'The Second Coming', you will see the mist of

difficulty, misunderstanding, and mystery about the words of Jesus lifted

forever after the lapse of twenty centuries. Many sects, many denominations,

many beliefs, many persecutions, many conflicts and upheavals have been created

by misinterpretations. Now, Christ reveals the consummate message in the simple

words he spoke to an ancient people in a less-advanced age of civilization.

Read, understand, and feel Christ speaking to you through this " Second Coming "

bible, urging you to be redeemed by realization of the true " Second Coming, " the

resurrection within you of the Infinite Christ Consciousness.

 

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

I, Introduction-Part 3, pg.xxvii-xxxiii

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

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

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

Notes:

 

[1] 'Autobiography of a Yogi', Chapter 33.

 

[2] The book written by Sri Yukteswarji at Babaji's behest is 'The Holy Science'

(published by Self-Realization Fellowship). See also Discourse 2, page 38.

 

[3] " And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that

He may abide with you for ever...But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,

whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring

all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you " . (John 14:16,

26).

 

[4] Aramaic was the language of daily usage in Jesus' homeland. (He would also,

of course, have received education in Hebrew, in which the Jewish scriptures

were written.) The earliest known records of the Gospels were written not in

Aramaic or Hebrew, but in Greek, the 'lingua franca' of the eastern part of the

Roman Empire at that time. Thus the translation of Jesus' words began even with

this primary written form.

For his commentaries on the Gospels, Paramahansa Yogananda used the King

James translation (the " Authorized Version " of 1611). Reynolds Price, Professor

of English at Duke University, has compared the King James Bible with later

English translations of the original Greek text of the Gospels. In 'Three

Gospels' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997) he writes: " We now have in English

several popular versions of the gospels that constitute what are well-intended

but almost certainly major distortions of their originals....King James's

translators proceeded under a single guiding principle (one word of the original

in the fewest equivalent words of English, with the preservation when possible

of at least some suggestion of the Greek word order)....

" Five minutes spent even today in the Bible section of an ordinary bookstore

will show that no later version has equaled the King James in popularity; and in

many conservative churches still, it is the only version consulted, as it is in

a thousand college courses on 'The Bible as Literature.' And while it is

customary to say that such enduring popularity derives from the King James's

sonorous diction and stately syntax--the diction of Shakespeare and Ben

Jonson--a close comparison of its language to that of the originals will very

often show that the power and memorability of the King James is an almost

automatic result of its loyal adherence to principles of literalness and the

avoidance of paraphrase. Nearly four centuries of Greekless readers have sensed,

unconsciously perhaps but with considerable accuracy, that....the language of

the King James is truer to its strange originals than any of its successors. "

(Publisher's Note)

 

[5] Jesus' words are recorded in the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas, verse 13:

" 'Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like.'

" Simon Peter said to him, 'You are like a righteous angel.'

" Matthew said to him, 'You are like a wise philosopher.'

" Thomas said to him, 'Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you

are like.'

" Jesus said, 'I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become

intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.' "

 

Elsewhere in the Gospel of Thomas (verse 108), Jesus declares: " He who will

drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the

things that are hidden will be revealed to him. " (Translation by Thomas O.

Lambdin, in 'The Nag Hammadi Library in English', James M. Robinson, ed.;

HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.)

 

Fragments of this Gospel were discovered in the late 1800s; but the complete

Gospel, including the portion cited here, was not discovered until 1945. It was

part of a collection of Coptic manuscripts from the second century, unearthed at

Nag Hammadi in Egypt, and was not translated into English until 1955.

(Paramahansa Yogananda left his body in 1952.) However, it was in 1937 that

Paramahansaji made the above statement that the words spoken by Jesus to him

conveyed the same message as Jesus' words to Thomas. (Publisher's Note)

 

[6] John 3:11 (see commentary in Discourse 14).

 

[7] " For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know

in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. " (I Corinthians 13:12).