The Baptism of Jesus - Part 1

[Guest guest]

The Baptism of Jesus - Part 1

 

(p.95) " The ultimate baptism, acclaimed by John the Baptist and by all

Self-realized masters, is to be baptized 'with the Holy Ghost, and with

fire'--that is, to become permeated with God's presence in the holy Creative

Vibration " ---

 

 

(p.99) In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of

Judea, and saying, " Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. "

 

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, " The voice of

one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord, makes his paths

straight.' "

 

And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about

his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him

Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were

baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

 

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said

unto them, " O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath

to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say

within yourselves, 'We have Abraham to our father': for I say unto you, that God

is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. [1] And now also the

axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not

forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [2]

 

" I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is

mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with

the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly

purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the

chaff with unquenchable fire " (Matthew 3:1-12). [3]

 

(p.100) Of great import was the role played by John the Baptist as the

prophesied forerunner divinely sent before Jesus to prepare his way and bear

testimony to the Christ incarnate in him and evidenced in the authority of his

teaching.

 

John the Baptist: forerunner

of the Christ Incarnate

 

A holy man of the desert solitudes, subsisting on wild honey and the fruit of

locust trees, John engaged himself in the mysteries and meditations of an

anchorite, awaiting Jesus to proclaim himself ready to begin his ministry. Many

believe that John was associated with the Essenes and their ascetic and esoteric

practices; included among their ceremonies was baptism for purification of the

body and spirit. [4] When John made himself known in the environs of Judea,

crowds followed him as a saint and prophet. (p.101) His renown made it possible

for him to fulfill worthily his part in Jesus' destiny, a pattern set in their

previous relationship as Elijah and Elisha. [5]

 

One of God's grand illusions is the screening of one incarnation from another.

Without this partitioning, no actor on the stage of life would be able to cope

with his kaleidoscopic identity and its relationships with others, and with his

place in the karmic cause-and-effect events whirling around him--a dizzying

conflict of countless incarnations with their interpersonal relationships

branching off into their own limitless previous existences and experiences. By

wiping clean the memory slate of each new lifetime, there is a freshness and a

degree of progressive order maintained in the cosmic drama.

 

The Second Coming of Christ (The Resurrection of the Christ Within

You) Volume 1, Discourse 6, pg. 95, 99-101

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] See Discourse 64, pages 1258-59, for commentary on these verses, Matthew

3:7-9.

 

[2] This verse is paralleled in Matthew 7:19 and is commented on in that context

in Discourse 30.

 

[3] For this entire group of verses, cf. parallel references in Mark 1:1-8 and

Luke 3: 1-18. See Discourse 56, page 1099, for commentary on verse 12.

 

[4] See Luke 1:80, Discourse 2: " And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,

and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel. " The Bible gives

no further information on the childhood and youth of John the Baptist. The

Essenes were an ascetical Jewish sect extant [i.e., existing] from about 150

B.C. until the end of the first century A.D. The Jewish historian Flavius

Josephus (c. A.D. 37-100) describes the Essenes in his 'Antiquities of the Jews'

(Book 18, Chap. 1, No. 2). The Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) wrote

that the Essenes lived near the Dead Sea in the hills above Ein Gedi (where in

1998 Israeli archaeologists excavated what are believed to be ruins of an Essene

community). Many similarities exist between what historians know of the Essene

way of life and that of John the Baptist described in the Gospels. In addition

to purificatory baptism by water, there is also evidence that they adhered to a

vegetarian diet. They maintained monastic-like communities in the desert in

order to separate themselves from what they saw as the corrupt and worldly

practices of the priests and populace.

 

" The Essene, like the Indian yogi, sought to obtain divine union and the 'gifts

of the Spirit' by solitary reverie in retired spots, " wrote archaeologist Arthur

Lillie in 'India in Primitive Christianity' (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner,

1909). Historian D.P. Singhal writes in 'India and World Civilization' (Michigan

State University Press, 1969): " Numerous authorities, such as Hilgenfeld and

Renan, maintain that there was Buddhist influence on the Essene doctrines. And

it was through this Jewish sect that Buddhist influences reached Palestine and

later filtered through to Christianity....The life led by the Essenes, " he says

(quoting historian Sir Charles Eliot in 'Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical

Sketch') " was 'just as might have been evolved by seekers after truth who were

trying to put into practice in another country the religious ideals of India.' "

('Publisher's Note')

 

[5] See Discourse 2.