The Infancy and Youth of Jesus - Part 2

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The Infancy and Youth of Jesus - Part 2

 

(p.69) My purpose in noting the broader narratives of Jesus' life available in

ancient records is not to insinuate their authenticity or opine as to their

factualness, but rather to suggest their plausibility against the background of

India's vast spiritual tradition of saints, 'rishis', and avatars. (p.70) The

spiritually exceptional is quite the norm for incarnate souls who are able to

pierce the veils of deceptive 'maya' and behold the Lord's creation from His

perspective. How else may the devotee and seeker recognize and appreciate the

inner divinity of a godly person, except that it be manifested and extolled in

the uncommon features and acts that characterize that life. A " miraculous " life

may be a subtle vibratory influence that has the power to uplift others from

ignorance, or it may be dramatic demonstrations as employed by Jesus to rouse

faith in the power and word of God.

 

Human as well as divine

attributes evidenced in the

lives of avatars

 

One of the difficulties encountered in Western perception of divinity is the

mindset that one is either human or divine. If human, he is made in man's image

and subject to all the flaws inherent therein; if divine, he is made in God's

image and must bear no hint of imperfection. But India's Vedic wisdom, and

especially Bhagavan Krishna's yoga science in the Bhagavad Gita, quite

reconciles human attributes and divinity in those whose consciousness transcends

the ordinary and realizes its oneness with God. As the very existence of

manifestation is the result of a complex formula of laws and forces activated by

the catalyst of 'maya'--the delusive factor that divides and differentiates the

one consciousness of Spirit into diverse forms--a divine being cannot even

assume and maintain a corporeal form without becoming subject to the principles

that create and sustain manifestation. Thus the divine being undergoes the

natural experiences associated with the limited instrumentality of the body and

the effects of its environment, while at the same time his soul remains

unbeclouded by the cosmic hypnosis of 'maya' that stultifies the common man.

 

The accounts in the Infancy Gospels concerning the acts of Jesus would not be

considered at all surprising or unexpected by the Eastern mind. In referring to

these texts, William Hone notes in the preface to his second edition of 'The

Apocryphal New Testament' that " the legends of the Koran and the Hindoo

mythology are considerably connected with this volume. Many of the acts and

miracles ascribed to the Indian God, Creeshna [Krishna], during his incarnation,

are precisely the same with those attributed to Christ in his infancy by the

Apocryphal Gospels, and are largely particularized by the Rev. Thomas Maurice in

his learned 'History of Hindostan. " [1]

 

(p.71) " Miracles " according to the will of God exude from His divine emissaries,

whether consciously initiated or spontaneously expressed through the physical

instrumentality from the superconscious motivation of the indwelling God-tuned

soul. Thus even in childhood Jesus possessed great powers, akin to those he had

manifested in his previous incarnation as Elisha, presaging the miracles of his

adult ministry that showed command over life and death and over natural laws

that do not yield their fixity except at a divine command. In the Infancy

Gospels, Jesus is said to have spoken to his mother, even from the cradle,

declaring his divine descent and world mission. When, as was the custom, the

infant on the fortieth day after birth was presented to God at the temple in

Jerusalem, " angels stood around him, adoring him, as a king's guard stands

around him. " When honored by the Wise Men from the East, Mary gave to them one

of the swaddling clothes in which Jesus was wrapped; " at the same time there

appeared to them an angel in the form of that star which had been their guide in

their journey. " On their return to their own country, " kings and princes came to

them, enquiring what they had seen and done. " They produced the swaddling cloth,

and according to custom prepared a fire and worshipped the cloth and cast it

into the sacred flame. " And when the fire was put out, they took forth the

swaddling cloth unhurt, as much as if the fire had not touched it. "

 

Miracles ascribed to

the child Jesus

 

When King Herod, fearing the prophecy of the birth in Bethlehem of an almighty

king, ordered the death of all infants, and God warned Joseph to flee into Egypt

with Mary and Jesus, several miracles occurred in the land of their exile in the

presence of the holy child. The Infancy Gospels relate how the son of an

Egyptian high priest is cured of possession by devils, and the famous idol

tended by his father inexplicably falls down and is destroyed, to the great

terror of worshipers. A woman is dispossessed of a devil; a bride struck dumb by

sorcerers is healed when she takes the infant Jesus lovingly in her arms. So

also, others are cured of infirmities, including leprosy and other ills,

sometimes by pouring over their body the water that had been used to bathe the

infant Jesus.

 

Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, according to the apocryphal texts, abode three years in

Egypt. [2]

 

(p.72) On return to Israel, a litany of similar miracles ascribed to the infant

Jesus continues. As the child emerges from infancy, he begins a more conscious

wielding of his God-given powers. The legendary tellings might well be

misconstrued as describing a child with powers over matter and life and death

itself who is of a capricious, even petulant, nature, at whose command the

elements obey. Certainly, in and of itself this literal acceptance of the tales

would rightly doom them to the ash heap of heresy. Whatever vestiges of

authenticity may breathe within these legends must be viewed in the light of the

singular purpose for which saviors come to earth. No vindictive or arrogant

intent motivates the actions of such a one. If indeed, according to the

accounts, some persons were withered or struck blind or lifeless in their

encounters with the child Jesus, it was through his command that some

consequence from their past-life evils was thereby mitigated. Correspondingly,

children who taunted Elisha were destroyed by bears summoned from the woods by

the prophet, not as an act of wrath, but in recognition of a present cause

providing the opportunity for the atonement and expiation of long-past evil

actions--fruition of the law of karma, cause and effect, God's law of justice.

[2] (p.73) It is, in fact, noted in the scriptures of India that karmic justice

dispensed by the hand of an emissary of God is a privileged blessing leading to

that chastened soul's liberation. Thus only with divine purpose does the

god-king Krishna slay those of evil doing. Similarly, God's just law manifests

through the child Jesus not to maim, but to free. (No such concession is

attached to the destructive actions of a despot or egotist with a self-induced

savior complex. God's laws will not be mocked!)

 

Life and death, animate and inanimate matter, were all seen by the child Jesus

as manipulatable vibrations of God's consciousness. We are told he formed

sparrows from mud scooped from ponds after a rainstorm; and when chastised for

such action on the Sabbath, he gave life to the birds and bade them fly away.

More often than not, those who suffered death or affliction at his command were

restored by him to life and health, just as later in his ministry he withdrew

life from the fig tree and caused it to wither and restored life to Lazarus and

raised him from the dead. Nature's laws are activated quite ingenuously by one

who knows his unity with the omnipresent Universal Consciousness through which

all existences are created, sustained, and dissolved.

 

It is related in the Infancy Gospels that father Joseph found the extraordinary

talent of his son of incredible assistance in his carpentry trade--not as an

artisan with hammer and chisel, but when by error " Joseph had any thing to make

longer or shorter, or wider or narrower, the Lord Jesus would stretch forth his

hand towards it. And presently it would become as Joseph would have it. " After

two years of labor on a commissioned throne for the ruler of Jerusalem, the seat

was found to be lacking " two spans on each side, of the appointed measure. " The

king was angry and Joseph fearful; whereupon Jesus directed his father to pull

on one side while he pulled on the opposite.[3] And when " each of them had with

strength drawn his side, the throne obeyed, and was brought to the proper

dimension of the place: which miracle when they who stood by saw, they were

astonished, and praised God. " (This was as elementary for Jesus as later it

would be for him to change water into wine, or to multiply the loaves and

fishes.) [4]

 

(p.74) A boy at the point of death from a serpent's venom is restored to his

former health. " And when he began to cry, the Lord Jesus said, Cease crying, for

hereafter thou shalt be my disciple. And this is that Simon the Canaanite, who

is mentioned in the Gospel. "

 

Jesus' brother James, while they both were out gathering wood, is bitten by a

venomous viper; whereupon Jesus blew his breath on the wound and it was

instantly well. Amidst play, a boy falls from the roof and dies; Jesus restores

him to life.

 

Precocious would hardly describe the child Jesus. Attempts at schooling by

competent teachers met with frustration and even disgrace for these scholars. In

beginning with the alphabet, the teacher could not progress beyond the first

letter because of the insistence of Jesus that the teacher explain the full

meaning of the letter. Whereupon receiving no such explanation the child

proceeded with the whole alphabet and the process of its formation and the

diagramming of each letter--none of which the teacher had ever heard nor read in

any book. The parents brought Jesus to a more learned teacher, who suffered a

similar defeat, and in addition a withered hand when he raised it to strike what

he took to be an insolent child.

 

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

1, Discourse 4, pg. 69-74

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] London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1795.

 

[2] In a note to his edition of 'The Apocryphal New Testament' (1821), William

Hone writes of a tradition traceable to Peter, third-century bishop of

Alexandria, who purportedly said that " the place in Egypt where Christ was

banished is now called Matarea, about ten miles beyond Cairo; that the

inhabitants constantly burn a lamp in remembrance of it; and that there is a

garden of trees yielding a balsam, which were planted by Christ when a boy. "

(The Infancy Gospel itself refers to the balsam trees as having grown on that

site after Mary washed Jesus' clothes there in a spring that gushed forth at the

command of the divine child.)

 

[3] " King " is most likely a reference to Archelaus, ruler until A.D. 6.

('Publisher's Note')

 

[4] A story about the infant Krishna likewise recounts his ability to alter the

shape of material objects. He was adored by all the village milkmaids and

indulged in his sweet misbehavior, especially in helping himself to their store

of fresh curds. But one day this had gone too far, and in order to get at the

curds he broke the container in which his mother Yashoda had been churning fresh

milk into butter. Thinking to anchor him to a mortar stone and thereby put at

least a temporary halt to his pranks, she fetched a length of rope to fasten

around his waist. When she tried to tie the knot, however, she was surprised to

find the rope too short. She got a longer piece and tried again, only to find

this one too short as well. Eventually, all the rope in the household had been

brought, but still it proved insufficient to tie up the divine child! After a

crowd had gathered and was chuckling at the plight of poor Yashoda, Krishna took

pity on his mother and permitted himself to be fastened securely to the mortar

stone.