Gabriel's trumpet and the real after-death resurrection

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Gabriel's trumpet and the real after-death resurrection

 

 

(p.360) The slipping of the lifetronic astral body from the atomic physical body

at death causes the hum of released lifetronic energy. This sound, resonating

with the uplifting Cosmic Sound, every person, virtuous or sinful, automatically

hears with his subtle astral senses during the transition from the physical to

the astral world.

 

" All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth " [1]

refers to another transition of consciousness effected by " Gabriel's trumpet " or

the divine voice of Cosmic Vibration. " Graves " signifies a temporary after-death

state of mental stupor or unconscious sleep which most souls, except those who

are advanced, undergo when they depart from the physical body. A comparison may

be made with the state of sleep. The wakeful consciousness of man nightly rests

in the subconsciousness of sleep, during which man is not aware of the body and

his sleep state. The astral body and the causal body semiretire from the muscles

and sense organs and rest in the internal organs and the spine and subconscious

mind. At the moment of awakening, the life force vibrates outward with many

sounds and resurrects the sleeping astral body and mind of man into the state of

conscious wakefulness.

 

Similarly, in the after-death state there is a period of unconscious

rejuvenating sleep, referred to metaphorically by Jesus as a grave, in which

souls are " entombed " within their resting astral and causal bodies. The time of

this death sleep is different for various people, according to their individual

qualities and good or bad karma--even as people of various habits sleep for long

or short periods.

 

Just as the vibrating life force resurrects the consciousness of the sleeper

into the wakeful state, so the energy voice of the Holy Cosmic Vibration, the

great Amen or 'Aum' sound, lifts souls of good or bad karma, with their astral

and causal bodies, from the " tomb " of after-death oblivion to awareness of the

spiritual environment of the astral heaven, or to reincarnation in a karmically

attracted good or bad environment of earthly life.

 

" For the hour is coming, " that is, it is imminent with the physical death of

each man that he shall hear the sound of Cosmic Vibration (the trumpet of

Gabriel) and shall forsake the unconscious sleep of the after-death state. Those

who have stored up effects of good actions will be resurrected into conscious

awareness of life in the glorious astral realm--for a karmically predetermined

time--and then be reincarnated into a spiritual earth life. (p.361) Those who

have stored up evil in their past lives may experience in their astral bodies

the dark astral realms of distressing or nightmarish dreams; eventually, by the

damnation of the karmic law of reaping what one has sown, they will be led by

the Cosmic Vibration to reincarnate in new physical bodies with their same evil

tendencies impinged on the brain, and the effects of their past wrong actions.

 

In sleep the first thing that is forgotten is the body. In death, likewise, the

first thing that is forgotten is the physical body. In sleep, however, there is

still a link between the body and the soul, so in wakefulness the person becomes

conscious again of the same forgotten body. In death the soul's connection with

the physical form is permanently severed: After the sleep of death is finished,

a soul awakens not in the same body but in a different body. In the exceptional

case of Jesus Christ, though death separated his soul from his physical body, he

rebuilt his same broken body by an act of divine will with the Holy Ghost cosmic

energy and housed his soul therein again.

 

Thus the word resurrection, " to rise again " after death, means reincarnation,

which may occur from the physical to the astral, or from the astral to the

physical; or for supremely advanced souls, from the physical to the spiritual,

from which place souls are never forced to leave again. " He who overcomes, I

will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it

anymore. " [2]

 

In the astral, souls have luminous bodies of lifetronic energy. In the physical

world, souls condense the lifetronic energy of their astral bodies into the

grosser atomic structure of the physical body. In the spiritual realm, souls

dissolve their delusive bodily forms and dreams of a little body into the

consciousness of the Infinite, either as tenuously individualized souls in the

causal realm or in complete mergence in Spirit. Ordinary souls have to

reincarnate repeatedly from the physical to the astral, then back to the

physical, until they become developed enough to resurrect from the physical to

the astral and then to the all-liberating spiritual realm.

 

No matter where the soul is, it receives a chance to use its reason consciously,

or subconsciously, or superconsciously (if its actions are very good), in the

causal, astral, or physical world. (p.362) God-given reason and free choice can

never be withdrawn, even if temporarily constrained by karmic effects of one's

evil actions. Souls must be reborn countless times until they have full

opportunity to use their free choice to disengage themselves from the woesome

bondage to matter, and thereby return to God.

 

As a saint once said to God, " Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are

restless until they rest in Thee. " [3] To this I will add: " until they

'deserve'--by our free-will efforts to rise above all restless desires that

divert us matterward--to rest in Thee. "

 

Only during nocturnal sleep or during the big sleep of death may a soul rest for

a while from external stimuli and the ceaseless activating force of desire; but

though its bodily instruments sleep, the ever conscious soul keeps stirring all

the time. If one sleeps peacefully or fretfully, then, on waking, one feels

peaceful or worried, as the case may be. So, in deathly sleep, man's deep

consciousness keeps stirring--the life and intelligence is continuously

invigorating itself. After he has had sufficient respite from external stimuli,

his unfulfilled desires begin to revive, increasing in strength until they cause

him to reawaken--either in an astral environment or in a new physical

incarnation, depending on his karma and the inclination of his desires.

 

Any stir of intelligence during life or death is vibratory change, the motion of

which creates sound--as all vibration is manifested from the Holy Cosmic

Vibration and all sound from its sound of Amen or 'Aum'. The great uplifting

vibratory change instilled by Cosmic Law at the karmically appointed time of

death to release physically captive souls into the freedom of the diseaseless,

accidentless, painless astral sphere is one meaning of the " resurrection after

Gabriel blows his trumpet. " Gabriel's trumpet sounds again after a soul's

pre-allotted time in the astral world: The Cosmic Intelligent Vibration, " his

voice, " leads that soul--encased in an astral body wherein its past good and bad

karmic tendencies are stored--to enter into a newly built protoplasmic home of a

united sperm and ovum cell, which then develops into the embryo and a new

physical body. (p.363) This Cosmic Vibration serves like dancing waves in the

sea of ether to float the astral-causal-body-encased soul from the astral world

to the shores of a good or evil environment in earth life, commensurate with

that individual's good and bad karma accrued from the good and evil actions

performed by the use of free will.

 

Like attracts like. One's karmic pattern draws him to incarnate in an advantaged

or disadvantaged, good or evil, body and mentality, family, and environment that

not only reflect the effects of one's past actions, but provide the necessary

challenges for learning from past errors. Thus they who have done good come

forth resurrected into a higher life of better circumstances; and they who have

done evil come forth on earth " unto the resurrection of damnation, " to face and

work out the consequences of their misdeeds, in a new life and opportunity to

learn and change their ways. The Cosmic Law and Cosmic Holy Ghost Vibration are

only guides to help both good and bad to their respective new-life destinations,

Nature's secretive way of working to carry out God's creative plan in a

wondrous, mysterious dignity.

 

The law of resurrection, or reincarnation, thus teaches man that he must never

give up, even if old, discouraged, or at death's door. He should try every

minute of his existence to improve himself, knowing that life continues after

death into the better land of the astral plane, and thence into new encouraging

surroundings on the physical plane. At last he will wake up to Gabriel's trumpet

call of ultimate wisdom in the spiritual kingdom, from which there is no forced

return to earth. Even as Jesus by overcoming mortal consciousness attained

supreme power over life and death, so every man, by the right method of deep

meditation, can learn consciously to lift the soul from body consciousness into

the presence of God. When the last trumpet sounds for that soul, death will hold

no mystery. The prodigal soul is taken back from its wanderings in matter to its

ever-blessed spiritual home in God.[4]

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 21, pg. 360-364

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] John 5:28.

 

[2] Revelation 3:12.

 

[3] 'The Confessions of Saint Augustine', Book One.

 

[4] " Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom

of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a

mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in

the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the

dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this

corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall

have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is

written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O

grave, where is your victory?' The sting of death is sin; and the strength of

sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ " (I Corinthians 15:50-57).

 

Saint Paul thus describes the " trumpet " of Cosmic Vibration, which resurrects

man's consciousness at the end of each earthly incarnation from mortal

confinement to the greater freedom after death. Ultimately, " at the last

trumpet, " the soul is raised to liberation in God through the Christ

Consciousness inherent in the Holy Ghost Vibration, " the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ, " after repeated incarnations of spiritual advancement have

destroyed all " corruption, " mortal consciousness and desires, and their

resultant karma. Then " death is swallowed up in victory, " the karma-compelled

cycles of birth and death are over for that soul.