Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open - Part 3

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" Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open " - Part 3

 

Nathanael saith unto him, " Whence knowest thou me? "

 

Jesus answered and said unto him, " Before that Philip called thee, when thou

wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. "

 

Nathanael answered and saith unto him, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art

the King of Israel " (John 1:48-49).

 

(p.199) Nathanael was astonished to hear Jesus speak of him with the familiarity

one would expect only from long association. How could a stranger thus analyze

him so candidly? Jesus responded: " Before Philip called thee, I saw thee. " This

seeing was not by the superficial sensory eyes, it was the intuitive photography

of Nathanael's soul imprinted on the omnipresent perception of Jesus by the art

of divine telepathy.

 

" Fig tree " : the cerebrospinal tree of life

with its astral nerve branches and roots

 

Jesus explained: " I saw thee under the fig tree " ; that is to say, " I saw through

my spiritual eye thy soul resting beneath the astral nerve branches of the

cerebrospinal tree of life. " (p.200) Man's body is figuratively an upturned tree

with roots of cranial nerves feeding the spinal trunk and sending forth life and

consciousness to the burgeoning branches of the nervous system. The Bhagavad

Gita, similarly, likens the composite of man--consciousness, life force, and the

nervous system--to the 'ashvattha' tree [pipal or holy fig, 'Ficus religiosa'],

with roots above and boughs beneath. " [1] A spiritual adept with divine sight,

looking deeply into another person, can see the soul garbed in its astral

nervous system. Persons imbued with spiritual qualities have a refined astral

nervous system, vibrantly luminous, while the astral nervous system of the

materialist is bedimmed with life-sapping " figs " of sensory desires vibrating on

its branches.

 

Now Jesus may have seen with his divine vision the actual physical form of

Nathanael resting under a fig tree in a distantly placed scene. But it was the

perception of Nathanael's soul and astral form that had attracted the

consciousness of Jesus. With this penetrating insight, the Master recognized and

drew to him yet another rediscovered disciple of lives past [2], searching him

out in the realm of astral manifestation--remote to myopic physical eyes, but

proximate to the vision of the telescopic spiritual eye.

 

Every soul is garbed with its own unique individuality. When a soul changes its

fleshly garment from one incarnation to the next, donning a newly inherited

racial and familial appearance, it is no longer recognizable to those who look

only to physical features. But masters can peer behind the purely physical

facade and with intuitive perception recognize the soul's individuality,

unchanged from one lifetime to another. There are even telltale indications in

the eyes, facial features, and bodily characteristics that reveal certain

similarities to the soul's garb in a former existence--signs that a master knows

how to read. The eyes, especially, change very little, for they are the windows

of the soul.

 

Nathanael could feel the astral body of Jesus permeating his own being,

suffusing his consciousness with vibratory blessings. With the enlightenment

bestowed by that 'darshan', in which the disciple partook of the omniscient

consciousness of Jesus, Nathanael recognized in an instant: " Thou art the Son of

God; thou art the King of Israel. " (p.201) In awe, Nathanael spoke of the Master

as preeminent in heaven and on earth: son of the Owner of the Universe, entitled

also to the terrestrial honorific of King of Israel--a diminutive kingdom

situated on the little pill of earth embracing its place in the Infinite Kingdom

of God.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 10, pg. 199-201

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 'God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita' XV:1-2.

 

[2] Nathanael is commonly thought to be also known as Bartholomew, a disciple

among the " inner circle " of Jesus' followers chosen as one of the twelve

apostles.