The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 8

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The Second Birth of Man--In Spirit - Part 8

(Dialogue with Nicodemus, Part I)

 

 

Spiritual birth--to be

born again in Spirit--

is bestowed by a true

guru

 

(p.250) Jesus said that we must reestablish our connection with Eternity; we

must be born again. (p.251) Man has either to follow the circuitous route of

reincarnations to work out his karma, or--by a technique such as 'Kriya Yoga'

and the help of a true guru--to awaken the divine faculty of intuition and know

himself as a soul, that is, be born again in Spirit. By the latter method he can

see and enter the kingdom of God in this lifetime.

 

Sooner or later, after a few or many painful incarnations, the soul in every

human being will cry out to remind him that his home is not here, and he will

begin in earnest to retrace his steps to his rightful heavenly kingdom. When one

is very desirous to know Truth, God sends a master through whose devotion and

realization He plants His love in that person's heart.

 

Human birth is given by one's parents; but the spiritual birth is given by the

God-ordained guru. In the Vedic tradition of ancient India, the newly born child

is called 'kayastha', which means " body identified. " The two physical eyes,

which look into alluring matter, are bequeathed by the physical parents; but at

the time of initiation, spiritual baptism, the spiritual eye is opened by the

guru. Through the help of the guru, the initiate learns to use this telescopic

eye to see Spirit, and then becomes 'dwija', " twice-born " --the same metaphysical

terminology used by Jesus--and begins his progress toward the state of becoming

a 'Brahmin', one who knows Brahman or Spirit. [1]

 

The matter-bound soul, lifted into the Spirit by God-contact, is born a second

time, in Spirit. Alas, even in India this initiation from body consciousness to

spiritual consciousness has become just a formality, a caste ceremony performed

on young Brahmin boys by ordinary priests--tantamount to the symbolic ritual of

baptism with water. But Jesus, like great Hindu masters of ancient and modern

times, conferred the actual baptism of Spirit-- " with the Holy Ghost, and with

fire. " A true guru is one who can change the disciple's brain cells by the

spiritual current flowing from God through his enlightened consciousness. All

will feel that change who are in tune--who meditate sincerely and deeply and, as

in the practice of 'Kriya Yoga', learn to send the divine current into the brain

cells. The soul is bound to the body by cords of karma, woven by lifetimes of

material desires, behavior, and habits. Only the life current can change one's

life, destroying those millions of karmic records. (p.252) Then one is born

again; the soul opens the inner window of oneness with the Spirit and enters

into the perception of the wondrous omnipresence of God. [2]

 

So the term " born again " means much more than merely joining a church and

receiving ceremonial baptism. Belief alone will not give the soul a permanent

place in heaven after death; it is necessary to have communion with God now.

Human beings are made angels on earth, not in heaven. At death, wherever one

leaves off in his progress, he will have to start in again in a new incarnation.

After sleep one is the same as before sleep; after death one is the same as

before death. That is why Christ and the Masters say it is necessary to become

saintly before the sleep of death. It cannot be done by filling the mind with

mortal attachments and useless diversions. One who is engrossed in storing up

treasure on earth is not busy with God; one who is intent on God does not want

many fillers in his life. It is by freeing oneself from earthly desires that one

gains entry into the kingdom of God. The Lord patiently waits for one hundred

percent of man's devotion; for those who diligently seek Him every day, and who

fulfill His commandments through godly behavior, He opens the door to the

kingdom of His presence.

 

A multitude of lectures about sunshine and scenic beauties will not enable me to

see them if my eyes are closed. So it is that people do not see God who is

omnipresent in everything unless and until they open their spiritual eye of

intuitive perception. (p.253) When one can perceive that he is not the mortal

body but a spark of the Infinite Spirit cloaked in a concentration of life

energy, then he will be able to see the kingdom of God. He will realize that the

composition of his body and the universe is not soul-imprisoning matter, but

expansive, indestructible energy and consciousness. Science has proved this

truth; and each individual can experience it. Through 'Kriya Yoga', he can have

the unshakable realization that he is that great Light and Consciousness of

Spirit.

 

O man, how long will you remain a rational animal? How long will you fruitlessly

try to look into the endless tracts of creation with only your myopic eyes of

senses and reason? How long will you remain bound to satisfying the demands of

animal man? Shed all constraining fetters; know yourself as something immortal,

having limitless powers and faculties. No more this age-old dream of rational

animal! Wake up! you are the intuitional child of immortality!

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 13, pg. 250-253

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] Cf. 'God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita', commentary on III:24.

 

[2] True meditation ('dhyana', the seventh step of the Eightfold Path of Yoga as

delineated by Sage Patanjali) is spoken of as giving " conception of the

magnitude of 'Aum', " the Biblical Holy Ghost or Word. In 'The Holy Science',

Swami Sri Yukteswar writes:

 

" What is needed is a Guru, a Savior, who will awaken us to 'Bhakti' (devotion)

and to perceptions of Truth....Any advanced sincere seeker many be fortunate in

having the Godlike company of some one of such personages, who may kindly stand

to him as his Spiritual Preceptor, 'Sat-Guru', the Savior. Following

affectionately the holy precepts of these divine personages, man becomes able to

direct all his organs of sense inward to their common center--the sensorium,

'Trikuti' or 'Sushumnadwara', the door of the interior world--where he

comprehends the Voice...[the Cosmic Vibration that is] the Word, Amen,

'Aum'....From the peculiar nature of this sound, issuing as it does like a

stream from a higher unknown region and losing itself in the gross material

creation, it is figuratively designated by various sects of people by the names

of different rivers that they consider as sacred; for example, Ganga by the

Hindus, Yamuna by the Vaishnavas, and Jordan by the Christians. Through his

luminous body, man, believing in the existence of the true Light--the Life of

this universe--becomes baptized or absorbed in the holy stream of the sound. The

baptism is, so to speak, the second birth of man and is called 'Bhakti Yoga',

without which man can never comprehend the real internal world, the kingdom of

God. "