Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open - Part 8

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" Hereafter Ye Shall See Heaven Open " - Part 8

 

The nature of angels,

and how to commune

with them

 

(p.210) Angels are God-ordained heavenly beings who serve God's purposes

throughout creation. They are either personified powers or qualities of God, or

are fully liberated souls in whose beings the perfect spirit of God is encased.

The latter, having overcome both material and heavenly desires and attachments,

have merged in Spirit and then reemerged in bodies of pure energy--omnipotent,

omniscient forces of the Divine Will.

 

God's angels and exalted saints in the immanent-transcendent sphere of

omnipresent Christ Consciousness can move freely in any realm of Infinity. They

can ascend to the region of the Father; there the Self is dissolved in the

unfathomable Blissful Spirit. Yet the impression of their individuality remains

and can be reclaimed at will or at God's command. In the Christ Consciousness

sphere they have individuality, but are in an ecstatic state. They dissolve

their astral bodies there. When they descend into the vibratory region, they can

be seen with astral bodies, which look just like a physical body, except made of

a glow of light. That body has substance as a manifested form, but not gross

solidity--just as dream images seem so solid, and yet are composed of the

subtlety of astral light. By changing the vibrations of their super-electric

forms, angels can make themselves large or small, visible or invisible at will,

not only in the astral but also in the physical ether--as when angels appeared

to laud the birth of Jesus. (p.211) At other times, also, angels and divine

beings in their astral forms, seen or unseen, intersperse the blessings of their

presence into the happenings on earth, as when in response to devotional

supplication or good karma a person or condition merits divine intervention.

 

It is not insurmountably difficult to see and commune with angels. But it

requires deep concentration long enough so that all the disturbances of the mind

drop away and the heart becomes perfectly attuned to the fine, heavenly

vibrations. When the physical body and mind are restless, the consciousness does

not record the presence of angels and spiritual beings. One must know how to

tune in with them in order to see the divine ones " ascending and descending upon

the Son of man. "

 

The heart, or center of feeling--the conscious awareness principle in man,

described in Yoga as 'chitta'--is the receiver of perceptions, as the radio or

television set receives sounds and images passing through the ether. The

spiritual eye of intuition broadcasts those perceptions from omnipresence into

the consciousness. Therefore, in a state of deep concentration attained in the

practice of the scientific methods of yoga meditation, the feeling (the

aggregate mind-stuff of intelligent consciousness) and the spiritual eye work

together to tune in the finer vibrations of spiritual manifestation by refining

and uplifting the human consciousness, the son of man, to a receptive state.

Neither the higher heavenly realms nor their exalted saints and angels can be

contacted through such means as mediums or psychic demonstrations--which at

utmost can reach only the ordinary or lower astral planes and their beings, or,

more commonly, unreliable earthbound entities. [1]

 

In his words to Nathanael, Jesus spoke of this spiritualization of consciousness

toward which the disciple was to aspire under the guidance of the Master;

ultimately to see the highest heaven open and the physical body or son of man

translated into a son of God. When the spiritual eye is opened and the

consciousness embraces all creation in the Christ state, the devotee knows that

his own true Self is an angelic being--an immortal immutable ['unchangeable']

soul. He realizes that in the incarnate state it is the astral body that is the

real body, the purveyor of life, sensory powers, consciousness--more tangible

than the gross atomic form, and powerfully invulnerable to sickness, diseases,

and troubles. (p.212) Satanic delusion transforms perfect soul-angels into

mortal devils, or at the least into individuals forgetful of their divine

status. But even an ocean of sins cannot spoil the soul. Sin means error.

Renounce the sin of ignorance and its delusive enticements of evil doings. Keep

the heart free from jealousy, anger, selfishness; love all persons

unconditionally, in spite of their weaknesses--that is the way to become an

angelic son of man, in tune with the angels and fully liberated sons of God. By

following Jesus, Nathanael would be led into his own position among that holy

heavenly host.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 10, pg. 210-212

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 24.