God's Love Gave to the World His Only Begotten Son - Part 3

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God's Love Gave to the World His Only Begotten Son - Part 3

(Dialogue With Nicodemus, Part III (Conclusion))

 

Those who disavow

their Divine Source

" condemn " themselves

to the jailhouse of

finitude

 

(p.276) " For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that

the world through him might be saved. " " The world " in this verse means the whole

of God's creation. The Lord's purpose in reflecting His Intelligence in

creation, making a structured cosmos possible, was not to devise a jailhouse of

finitude where souls are confined as willy-nilly participants in the 'danse

macabre' of suffering and destruction, but to make Himself accessible as an

impelling Force to urge the world from ignorance-darkened material manifestation

to an illumined spiritual manifestation. It is true that the vibratory creative

manifestation of the Universal Intelligence has originated the myriad

attractions of the cosmic playhouse through which man is constantly bemused to

move away from the Spirit to material life, to turn away from the Universal Love

to the infatuations of human life. Still, perception of the Absolute beyond

creation is intimately close through the intermediary of Its reflected

Intelligence in creation. Through this contact, the devotee realizes that God

sent the Christ Intelligence (His only begotten Son) to produce not a torture

chamber but a colossal cosmic motion picture, whose scenes and actors would

entertain for a time and ultimately return to the Bliss of Spirit. In the light

of that understanding, regardless of one's circumstances in this relative world,

one feels his connection with the Universal Spirit and apprehends the vast

Intelligence of the Absolute working in all the relativities of Nature. Anyone

who believes in and concentrates on that Intelligence--Christ--instead of Its

products--the external creation--finds redemption.

 

To think that the Lord condemns nonbelievers as sinners is incongruous. Since

the Lord Himself dwells in all beings, condemnation would be utterly

self-defeating. God never punishes man for not believing in Him; man punishes

himself. If one does not believe in the dynamo and cuts the wires that connect

his home to that source, he forfeits the advantages of that electrical power.

Likewise, to disavow the Intelligence that is omnipresent in all creation is to

deny the consciousness its link with the Source of divine wisdom and love that

empowers the process of ascension in Spirit.

 

Expanding one's consciousness

of the infinite Christ Intelligence

 

Recognition of the immanence of God can begin as simply as expanding one's love

in an ever-widening circle. Man condemns himself to limitation whenever he

thinks solely of his own little self, his own family, his own nation. (p.277)

Inherent in the evolution of nature and man back to God is the process of

expansion. The exclusivity of family consciousness-- " us four and no more " --is

wrong. To shut out the larger family of humanity is to shut out the Infinite

Christ. One who disconnects himself from the happiness and welfare of others has

already condemned himself by isolation from the Spirit that pervades all souls,

for he who does not extend himself in love and service to God in others

disregards the redeeming power of connection with the universality of Christ.

Each human being has been given the power to do good; if he fails to utilize

that attribute, his level of spiritual evolution is little better than the

instinctive self-interest of the animal. [1]

 

Pure love in human hearts radiates the universal Christ-love. To expand

continuously the circle of one's love is to attune human consciousness with the

only begotten Son. Loving family members is the first step in expanding

self-love to those nearby; loving all human beings of whatever race and

nationality is to know Christ-love. It is God alone as the Omnipresent Christ

who is responsible for all expressions of life. The Lord is painting glorious

scenery in the ever-changing clouds and sky. He is creating altars of His

fragrant loveliness in the flowers. In everything and everyone--friends and

enemies; mountains, forests, ocean, air, the wheeling galactic canopy

overarching all--the Christ-devotee sees the one blended light of God. He finds

that the myriad expressions of the one Light, often seemingly chaotic in

conflict and contradictions, were created by God's intelligence not to delude

human beings or to afflict them, but to coax them to seek the Infinite whence

they have emerged. One who looks not to the parts but to the whole discerns the

purpose of creation: that without exception we are moving inexorably toward

universal salvation. All rivers are moving toward the ocean; the rivers of our

lives are moving toward God.

 

The waves on the surface of the ocean constantly change as they sport with the

wind and tidal elements, but their oceanic essence remains constant. (p.278) He

who concentrates on one isolated wave of life will suffer, because that wave is

unstable and will not last. This is what Jesus meant by " condemned " : Body-bound

man creates his own condemnation by isolating himself from God. To be saved he

must reestablish his realization of inseparable unity with the Divine Immanence.

 

" In waking, eating, work, dreaming, sleeping,

Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,

My soul constantly hums, unheard by any:

God! God! God! " [2]

 

In this way one remains continually aware of his connection with the changeless

Divine Intelligence--the Absolute Goodness underlying the provocative riddles of

creation. [3]

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 15, pg. 276-278

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] " A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part

limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as

something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his

consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our

personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be

to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to

embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. " --'Albert

Einstein'

 

[2] From 'Songs of the Soul' by Paramahansa Yogananda (published by

Self-Realization Fellowship).

 

[3] " Seemingly eclipsed by My own Yoga-Maya (the delusion born of the triple

qualities in Nature), I am unseen by men. The bewildered world knows not Me, the

Unborn, the Deathless " ('God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita' VII:25).