Rejoicing in the Voice of the Bridegroom - Part 2

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Rejoicing in the Voice of the Bridegroom - Part 2

 

Symbolic meaning of the

divine " Bridegroom "

 

(p.288) John's analogy of Jesus as the divine Bridegroom is a symbolism that

appears in several passages in the New Testament. [1] (p.289) Similarly, one of

the epithets applied to Bhagavan Krishna, the Christ of India, is Madhava: 'Ma',

Prakriti, or Primordial Mother Nature; 'dhava', husband. Both Jesus and Krishna,

as perfect embodiments of the omnipresent Krishna-Christ Consciousness, were

consorts of the Divine Spirit as Prakriti, or Primordial Mother Nature, which

has created and become all matter and space.

 

To manifest creation, Spirit causes a vibration of duality, dividing Its One

Being into the transcendent inactive Creator and His active Creator Power: God

the Father and Cosmic Mother Nature. Spirit and Nature, subject and object,

positive and negative, attraction and repulsion--it is duality that makes

possible the birth of the many out of the One. In His active objectifying

Creative Vibration (Holy Ghost or Maha-Prakriti), God Himself is subjectively

present in an unchanged, unaffected reflection, the Universal Spirit in

creation: 'Kutastha Chaitanya', Krishna or Christ Consciousness. That immanent

guiding Intelligence--the subjective consciousness or soul of the

universe--empowers the structuring of the omnipotent Vibratory Force into myriad

objective manifestations; in the womb of Mother Nature, Spirit thus gives birth

to creation. [2]

 

Jesus was called the Bridegroom because his consciousness was one with the

omnipresent positive consciousness of Spirit united with the negative vibration

of Cosmic Nature, the Bride, that engenders the vast universe. The positive

universal consciousness flows toward Spirit, counterbalancing the outward flow

of negative matter-projecting Cosmic Energy or Nature. It is by becoming one

with the Christ Intelligence that a man of realization can see Spirit and Nature

together--beholding the Imperishable amidst the perishing, and realizing the

endless permutations of life, change, and death as the ecstatic dance of Spirit

and Nature on the stage of infinite space and time. " Whatever exists--every

being, every object; the animate, the inanimate--understand that to be born from

the union of 'Kshetra' and 'Kshetrajna' (Nature and Spirit). (p.290) He sees

truly who perceives the Supreme Lord present equally in all creatures, the

Imperishable amidst the perishing. " [3] Ordinary persons see only Nature because

their consciousness is focused externally on the screen of material vibration;

but when the consciousness is reversed into the Cosmic Booth from which all

pictures of creation are projected, then it is possible to perceive the

singularity of the Christ Consciousness present in all space--to realize that in

truth it is Spirit that has become creation, that all things are naught else but

a glorious diversification of God. Jesus had reached this state; he was a

complete manifestation of God--the Bridegroom, universal Spirit wedded to

universal Nature.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 16, pg. 285-290

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] E.g., Matthew 9:15; 25:1.

 

[2] In the noncanonical Gospel of the Hebrews, which scholars date to the early

second century, Jesus is quoted as referring to the Holy Ghost as " my mother. "

The great church father Origen (c.185-254) wrote in his 'Commentary on John

2:12': " And if any accept the Gospel of the Hebrews, here the Savior says: 'Even

so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs, and carry me to

the great Mount Tabor' " (quoted in 'Gospel Parallels', by Burton H.

Throckmorton, Jr; Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992). ('Publisher's Note')

 

[3] 'God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita' XIII:26-27.