What is the meaning of Jesus casting out devils? - Part 2

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What is the meaning of Jesus casting out devils? - Part 2

 

And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean

demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, " Ha! What do we have to do with you,

Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One

of God! " And Jesus rebuked him, saying, " Be quiet and come out of him! " And when

the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him without doing

him any harm. And amazement came upon them all, and they began discussing with

one another saying, " What is this message? For with authority and power he

commands the unclean spirits, and they come out. " (Luke 4:33-36)

 

Characteristics of souls in the after-death realm

 

(p.398) Why should it be considered amazing that such disembodied evil spirits

reside on the other side of life when devils and devilish people exist right on

this side of life? If souls are immortal, then, according to the law of cause

and effect, it is logical to expect that when a devilish person sheds the mortal

coil and passes through the door of the mortal change called " death, " into the

afterlife, he does not become an angel, but continues to be a devil. (p.399)

Only a soul who has been angelic on earth can continue to be so after crossing

the gulf of death, entering not the dark astral spheres but the finer atmosphere

of Heaven.

 

As a good boy turned to evil ways can be called a devil, so the disincarnate

astral consciousness of a person gone wrong becomes devilish in its behavior.

Such wicked beings pass through many strange experiences in the afterlife. As

people of calm disposition usually have deep soothing sleep, so good souls, when

they sleep the sleep of death, experience a wondrously refreshing peace and

uplifting dream visions before reincarnating to continue working out their

earthly karma. But as restless and excitable persons often experience nightmares

during sleep, so also when people of evil-disturbed disposition die, they

experience during the great death sleep, according to the law of cause and

effect, only horrible astral nightmares, reflections of their own accumulated

evil.

 

As a man may sleep a few hours or three hours or twelve hours or may have

sleeping sickness, so some souls after death remain in the state of unconscious

sleep for a little while or a long time, according to their karma in earthly

life. Souls with good karma are able to be awake in the astral land after their

sleep of death. Those who have practiced many virtues enjoy the results of their

good karma on heavenly astral planets where the limitations of earth life are

non-existent. Most souls, neither categorically virtuous nor evil, after

sleeping the sleep of peaceful unconscious death, with occasional experiences of

astral wakefulness, wake up in the womb of their new earthly mother.

 

Only souls who by meditation can control the life-force functions of heart and

breath and remain engrossed in the constant ecstasy of God-consciousness during

their earth life can remain conscious unbrokenly during the transition of death

and also in the astral world. It is the testimony of these devotees who can

retain their consciousness in the after-death state that declares the mystery of

the astral experience.

 

As worms live in the earth, fish live in the water, humans live on earth, birds

live in the air, and angels live in the fine airless vibratory realms, so also

there are various atmospheres and vibratory regions in the astral universe where

souls of varying degrees of advancement reside, according to the merits and

demerits of their pre-astral existence in earth life.[1]

 

(p.400) Fish cannot live for long out of their watery habitat; similarly, tramp

souls, unclean spirits, must remain in gross vibratory astral planets, whereas

finer souls reside in the subtly vibrating luminous planets. If tramp souls

dared to approach these finer regions, they would be shocked or " astralocuted "

by the high voltage of astral energy.

 

As people walk in sleep or cry out during a bad dream, so, during the sleep of

death, unclean spirits move about in the ether crying out for relief. Often they

try to get hold of some passive bodily vehicle through which to express their

agony and pent-up wickedness. As a sleepwalker does many strange things, so

these ghostly sleepwalkers engage in many strange antics. But they can never

infest brains occupied with intelligent thinking, or people with strong will

power or vibrations of spiritual perception. That is why one should never make

the mind negative, or blank, in order to open oneself to messages from

disincarnate spirits. This presents an ideal opportunity for possession by

low-type tramp souls seeking human vehicles for expression and experience.[2]

 

The minds of spiritually advanced persons cannot be occupied by devilish souls;

but these devotees can invoke the presence of and communion with saintly souls

by use of the proper technique of astral intuition. One must learn the right

technique from one's guru. Divine saints do not appear through mediums and

seances; they respond only when they are invited by the urge of the devotion of

advanced devotees. Such devotees can see or talk to saints in vision. When they

develop even further, they can see with open eyes the materialized form of

saints and can talk to them or touch them, even as the advanced disciples of

Jesus were able by their devotion to see and touch Jesus Christ in flesh after

his resurrection.

 

So the idea of devils possessing weak-brained, thought-unoccupied [i.e., blank,

unaware] persons cannot be discarded as superstition. But a strong personality

fully occupies his brain, thereby shutting out the invasion of tramp souls.

Devotees who are sincerely seeking God, and who practice scientific methods of

prayer and meditation, need never fear such beings; for no harm from negative

spirits can come to one whose thoughts are on God. While one meditates on God,

one can be absolutely convinced that his body is so charged with a high voltage

of cosmic energy emanating from the thought of God that he is protected from the

lower-astral intruders. (p.401) If any such spirits would even try to possess

the bodies of God-tuned souls, those entities would be shocked and driven back

to the dark spheres of the astral world.

 

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

You) Volume 1, Discourse 24, pg. 398-401

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] " In my Father's house are many mansions " (John 14:2).

 

[2] Cf. commentary on Bhagavad Gita XVII:4, 'God Talks With Arjuna'.