Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open - Part 4

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" Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open " - Part 4

 

Jesus answered and said unto him, " Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under

the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. " And he

saith unto him, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven

open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man " (John

1:50-51). [1]

 

(p.201) Jesus responded: " Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig

tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. " Jesus was

pleased with Nathanael's receptivity, in that his belief was the result of the

incontrovertible vibratory experience he had received from Jesus.

 

Man's astral body ascends

at death and descends at

rebirth

 

Many people cling to their shadowy doubts even when an inner feeling urges

belief in a truth; but when belief is transmuted into realization, mental

wandering ceases. In the clear atmosphere of faith, realization continues to

unfold. Jesus' words were said to encourage Nathanael: " As you believe in me

receiving my astral and thought vibrations, greater things than this you will be

able to perceive; you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and

descending upon the son of man. "

 

" Son of God " refers to the soul, the individualized expression of the " only

begotten " Christ Consciousness reflection of God omnipresent in creation. The

" son of man " signifies the physical body with its faculties, which even in the

divine man is at best a limited instrument for the material expression of the

soul. The senses of the physical body are enamored with impressions of the world

of matter, but they have no inkling of the marvels of God's overspreading

creation unseen within and beyond the gross manifestations. (p.202) In that

hidden realm of cosmic beginnings, sustenance, and dissolution lie all the

mysterious wonder-workings of the macrocosmic universe and the microcosm of man.

 

Jesus said to Nathanael that as he had already been able to intuit that grand

other world that supports the three-dimensional sensory world, he would be able

thereafter to develop further his divine sight: " Through the opening of the

spiritual eye you shall see the glories of the astral heaven, and the

transmigration of luminous astral bodies ascending out of death's dark abyss of

discarded physical bodies into the light of the astral kingdom. Also you shall

behold astral beings descending from the celestial spheres into the to-be-formed

physical bodies of newly conceived babies. " Birth and death--creation's most

tantalizing mystery revealed!

 

At the end of each earthly sojourn the soul emerges from its fleshly prison,

garbed in its heavenly causal and astral coverings of consciousness and life

energy--an " angelic " contrast to the corruptible physical form. Astral freedom

is temporary for those whose karma compels eventual return to physical

incarnation; but those who transcend the self-woven cause-effect nets of

earthbound desire progress by continuing spiritual effort through ever higher

spheres of the astral heaven and the even finer causal heaven, eventually

earning enrollment in the Heavenly Host of perfected beings. Thus does each soul

rise to its source in Spirit.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 10, pg. 201-202

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] Unique to St. John's Gospel are numerous statements by Jesus emphatically

and solemnly prefaced by " verily, verily " -- " Amen, Amen " in the original Greek

and Hebrew. Cf. Revelation 3:14: " These things saith the Amen, the faithful and

true witness.... "