Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness - Part 4

[Guest guest]

Jesus' Temptation in the Wilderness - Part 4

 

Cosmic Energy: the

inner source of life

in man's body-battery

 

(p.162) Man's body is like an automobile battery, which is able to generate some

electricity from its components and the distilled water supplied it from

outside. But the power available from these chemical reactions is only

temporary; they have to be continually recharged with electric current from the

car's generator, or else the battery " dies. " Similarly, the life in man's body

is not maintained solely by means of indirect sustenance (food, liquids, oxygen,

and sunshine) but by the direct source of vibrating life current, the " word " of

God.

 

Electricity from the generator recharges the automobile battery and restores its

power to generate more electricity from its chemicals and distilled water;

likewise, Cosmic Energy coming into the body through the medulla enables the

body to convert food and gross elements into life-giving energy. (p.163) This

same Cosmic Energy, in its universal creative role, made solids, liquids, and

gases what they are; when we ingest them, the intelligent life energy in the

body must convert those solid, liquid, and gaseous forms of nourishment into

energy that can be utilized by the body. The body's intelligent life energy is

'prana', lifetrons, deriving from the life-giving functions of the astral body.

The difference between materially active forms of energy (electricity, light,

heat, magnetism) and life energy ('prana') is that the former are merely

mechanical forces while the latter, being lifetronic, possesses an inherent

divine intelligence.

 

In truth, the inner life energy is self-sufficient; it alone can support the

body. But through evolutionary generations of bad habits, it has been

conditioned to complete dependence upon food--becoming encapsulated, as it were,

in gross vibrations--and refuses to function properly, or even to remain in the

body, without material sustenance. Man, as a " food addict, " has simply forgotten

how to draw directly upon the bodily life force and its continuous supply of

Cosmic Energy. When an opium addict is suddenly denied any access to the drug,

he becomes sick or dies; similarly, when a person is addicted to Satan's

delusive laws of the material conditions of life, which have become second

nature to man, he must work off gradually such dependence by realizing his true

spirit nature, or in ignorance he will die a mortal's death without those life

supports.

 

To live by the evolutionary standard of eating food is not a sin; but to believe

only in physical means as sustaining life is delusion. Through vibratory power

and the various forces of nature, it is ultimately God alone who sustains life,

His power that digests food and changes it into bodily nourishment, tissue, and

blood. It is right to give tacit appreciation and obedience to Nature and her

ways, but the consciousness should remain unfettered by these material

limitations.

 

The seemingly solid body is itself a nonmaterial electromagnetic wave made up

ultimately of underlying astral lifetrons [1], which in turn are made of Cosmic

Consciousness. God has ingeniously condensed His consciousness into lifetrons,

lifetrons into electrons and protons, these subatomic particles into atoms, and

atoms into molecules and cells--all of which live by radiations from the Cosmic

Source. An actor on the movie screen seems so real; but he is nothing but

radiation divided into light and shadow issuing from the projection booth. Man

should realize the ethereal nature of his being--made of light and

consciousness, divine and indestructible, projected on the screen of time and

space by the creative Cosmic Beam of God.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 8, pg. 162-163

Paramahansa Yogananda

Printed in the United States of America 1434-J881

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

ISBN-10:0-87612-557-7

 

Note:

 

[1] As in the macrocosm of the universe, so in the microcosm of man there are

three interdependent bodies. Man's soul dons these three coverings that serve as

instrumentalities through which the incarnate spirit can perceive, comprehend,

and interact with God's creation. The very tenuous first covering of the soul,

which individualizes it from Spirit, is one of pure consciousness; it is

composed of God's thoughts or ideas that cause the other two sheaths. Thus it is

referred to as the causal body. These causal ideas emit a magnetic force of

light and intelligent energy, which I have called lifetrons, that form the

astral body of man. The astral body of lifetrons is itself the life energy that

empowers all the senses and functions of the physical body. The physical body is

merely a gross materialization of the causal ideas activated by the life and

energy of the astral body, and endowed with consciousness, self-awareness, and

intelligence from the causal body. All of these vibratory manifestations of the

macrocosm and microcosm derive from the Holy Ghost Vibration and the

transcendent consciousness of God.

 

Thus John summarizes: " In him (the Word) was life; and the life was the light of

men " (John 1:4).

 

The Biblical writers, not versed in the terminologies that express the knowledge

of the modern age, quite aptly used " Holy Ghost " and " the Word " to designate the

character of the Intelligent Cosmic Vibration. " Word " implies a vibratory sound,

carrying materializing power. " Ghost " implies an intelligent, invisible,

conscious force. " Holy " describes this Vibration because it is the manifestation

of Spirit; and because it is trying to create the universe according to the

perfect pattern of God. (See Volume 1, Discourse 1, pg.14-15).