We are caught up in doing rather than being, in action rather than awareness. It is hard for us to picture a state of complete calmness and repose in which thoughts and feelings cease to dance in perpetual motion. Yet it is through such a state of quietude that we can touch a level of joy and understanding impossible to achieve otherwise. It is said in the Bible: “Be still, and know that I am God.” In these few words lies the key to the science of yoga.
Yoga is a simple process of reversing the ordinary outward flow of energy and consciousness so that the mind becomes a dynamic center of direct perception — no longer dependent upon the fallible senses but capable of actually experiencing Truth.
Karma Yoga — selfless service to others as part of one’s larger Self, without attachment to the results; and the performance of all actions with the consciousness of God as the Doer.
Raja Yoga — the royal or highest path of yoga, formally systematized in the second century b.c. by the Indian sage Patanjali, which combines the essence of all the other paths.
is this direct approach that characterizes Kriya Yoga,2 the particular form of Raja Yoga meditation taught by Paramahansa Yogananda.
CHAPTER 1 Jesus the Avatar God’s Manifestation in Divine Incarnations
Blind forces cannot organize themselves into intelligently structured objects. As human intelligence is needed to put water into the small square compartments of an ice tray to be frozen into cubes, so in the coalescence of vibration into progressively evolving forms throughout the universe we see the results of a hidden Immanent Intelligence.
What could be more miraculous than the evident presence in every speck of creation of a Divine Intelligence? How the mighty tree emerges from a tiny seed. How countless worlds roll in infinite space, held in a purposeful cosmic dance by the precise adjustment of universal forces.
Just imagine! If you were living in this one room all of your life, having no contact with or knowledge of what is beyond these walls, you would say that this is the whole of your world. But if someone were to take you into the world outside, you would realize how infinitesimal your “world” was. So it is with the perception of Christ Consciousness. The scope of mortal consciousness by comparison is like observing only the area of a tiny mustard seed to the exclusion of the rest of the cosmos. Christ Consciousness is Omnipresence, the Lord spread over every pore of infinite space and permeating every atom.
The entirety of vibratory creation is an externalization of Spirit. Omnipresent Spirit secretes Itself in vibratory matter, just as oil is hidden in the olive. When the olive is squeezed, tiny drops of oil appear on its surface; so Spirit, as individual souls, by a process of evolution gradually emerges from matter.
Truth, in and of itself, is the ultimate “religion.” Though truth can be expressed in different ways by sectarian “isms,” it can never be exhausted by them. It has infinite manifestations and ramifications, but one consummation: direct experience of God, the Sole Reality.
Holy Ghost is the sacred, invisible vibratory power of God that actively sustains the universe: the Word, or Aum, Cosmic Vibration, the Great Comforter, the Savior from all sorrows.
Thus, Spirit first gave rise to a Magic Delusion, Maya, the cosmic Magical Measurer,8 which produces the illusion of dividing a portion of the Indivisible Infinite into separate finite objects, even as a calm ocean becomes distorted into individual waves on its surface by the action of a storm. All creation is nothing but Spirit, seemingly and temporarily diversified by Spirit’s creative vibratory activity.
“Word” means intelligent vibration, intelligent energy, going forth from God. Any utterance of a word, such as “flower,” expressed by an intelligent being, consists of sound energy or vibration, plus thought, which imbues that vibration with intelligent meaning. Likewise, the Word that is the beginning and source of all created substances is Cosmic Vibration [Holy Ghost] imbued with Cosmic Intelligence [Christ Consciousness].
The Unmanifested Spirit became God the Father, the Creator of all creative vibration. God the Father, in the Hindu scriptures, is called Ishvara (the Cosmic Ruler) or Sat (the supreme pure essence of Cosmic Consciousness) — the Transcendental Intelligence. That is, God the Father exists transcendentally untouched by any tremor of vibratory creation — a conscious, separate Cosmic Consciousness. The vibratory force emanating from Spirit, endowed with the illusory creative power of maya, is the Holy Ghost: Cosmic Vibration, the Word, Aum (Om) or Amen.
Saint John’s declaration echoes an eternal truth resonating in various passages of the hoary Vedas: that the cosmic vibratory Word (Vak) was with God the Father-Creator (Prajapati) in the beginning of creation, when naught else existed; and that by Vak were made all things; and that Vak is itself Brahman (God).
The light of God shines equally in all, but because of delusive ignorance all do not receive, reflect, it alike. Sunlight falls the same on a lump of coal and a diamond, but only the diamond receives and reflects the light in brilliant splendor. The carbon in the coal has the potential to become a diamond. All it requires is conversion under high pressure.
To be a son of God is not something one has to acquire: rather, one has only to receive His light and realize God has already conferred on him, at his very inception, that blessed status.
Deluded man is just a beggar on the street of time.
By contacting God…in meditation, all desires of the heart are fulfilled; for nothing is more worthwhile, more pleasant or attractive than the all-satisfying, ever-new joy of God….One who bathes his consciousness in the Holy Ghost becomes unattached to personal desires and objects while enjoying everything with the joyousness of God within.
“When sensory perceptions vibrate their pleasures in the body, I experience a heaviness; a weighty load hangs on the bosom of my soul, and I feel drawn down to matter. But, O elevating Aum, when Thou dost vibrate within me, oh, what exultant joy and lightness I feel. I soar above the body. I am drawn toward Spirit. O great Aum, rolling ocean of Aum, vibrate long within me so that I may remain awake to Thine infinite presence, broadened into identity with the Universal Spirit. Oh, this is the Voice of Heaven. This is the voice of Spirit. Aum, Thou art the source of all life, of all expressions of creation in the universe. So let me feel Thee, O great Mother Vibration, rolling within me as a part of Thy Cosmic Self.
Oh, these tiny joys, these tiny tonics of sensual vibrations, I wish to forsake. Enfold me in Thy vibration and carry me along with Thy rolling sound. Let me be free from the bondage of flesh; let me roll on with Thine infinite vibratory ripples of omniscient joy, O great Aum. Be with me, possess me, absolve me in Thee.”
When one’s senses are engaged outwardly, one is engrossed in the busy mart of creation’s interacting complexities of matter. Even when one’s eyes are closed in prayer or in other concentrated thoughts, still one is in the domain of busyness. The real wilderness, where no mortal thoughts, restlessness, or human desires, intrude, is in transcendence of the sensory mind, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind — in the cosmic consciousness of Spirit, the uncreate trackless “wilderness” of Infinite Bliss.
The seven centers are divinely planned exits or “trap doors” through which the soul has descended into the body and through which it must reascend by a process of meditation.
All seven centers, however, are often referred to as lotuses, whose petals open, or turn upward, in spiritual awakening as the life and consciousness travel up the spine.
In the gold halo of the spiritual eye, all creation is perceived as the vibratory light of the Holy Ghost. The blue light of Christ Consciousness is where the angels and deity agents of God’s individualized powers of creation, preservation, and dissolution abide — as well as the most highly evolved saints. Through the white light of the spiritual eye, the devotee enters Cosmic Consciousness; he ascends unto God the Father.
The mouth of the symbolic dove represents the star in the spiritual eye, the secret passage to Cosmic Consciousness. The two wings of the dove represent the two spheres of consciousness emanating from Cosmic Consciousness: The blue light of the spiritual eye is the microcosm of the subjective Christ Intelligence in all creation; and the golden ring of light in the spiritual eye is the microcosmic objective cosmic energy, Cosmic Vibration, or Holy Ghost.
In deepest meditation, as practiced by those who are advanced in the technique of Kriya Yoga, the devotee experiences not only expansion in the Aum vibration “Voice from heaven,” but finds himself able also to follow the microcosmic light of Spirit in the “straight way” of the spine into the light of the spiritual eye “dove descending from heaven.”…
and through perseverance in ever deeper meditation penetrate his gaze through its light, will perceive the entire kingdom of Cosmic Energy and the consciousness of God existing within it and beyond, in the Infinite Bliss of Spirit.
CHAPTER 4 The “Second Birth”: Awakening of Soul-Intuition
One meaning to be drawn from this precept is that the soul has to be born repeatedly in various bodies until it reawakens to realization of its native perfection. It is a false hope to believe that at bodily death the soul automatically enters into an everlasting angelic existence in heaven. Unless and until one attains perfection by removing the debris of karma (effects of one’s actions) from the individualized God-image of his soul, he cannot enter God’s kingdom. The ordinary person, constantly creating new karmic bondage by his wrong actions and material desires, adding to the accumulated effects of numerous previous incarnations, cannot free his soul in one lifetime. It takes many lifetimes of physical, mental, and spiritual evolution to work out all karmic entanglements that block soul intuition, the pure knowing without which one cannot “see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus did not mention a rebirth involving water. “Water” here means protoplasm; the body is made up mostly of water and begins its earthly existence in the amniotic fluid of the mother’s womb. Though the soul has to go through the natural process of birth that God has established through His biological laws, physical birth is not enough for man to be fit to see or enter into the kingdom of God.
God. In this second birth the body remains the same; but the soul’s consciousness, instead of being tied to the material plane, is free to roam in the boundless, eternally joyous empire of Spirit. God intended His human children to live on earth with an awakened perception of the Spirit informing all creation, and thus to enjoy His dream-drama as a cosmic entertainment.
The spiritual man is trying to free himself from the materiality that is the cause of his prodigal wandering in the maze of incarnations, but the ordinary man does not want more than a betterment of his earthly existence.
The soul of the awakening man has followed a hard-earned way — many incarnations of upward evolution — in order to arrive at the human state and the possibility to reclaim his lost divinity. Yet how many human births have been wasted in preoccupation with food and money and gratification of the body and egoistic emotions!
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.
crucifixion! He said to Nicodemus: “If I tell you about matters pertaining to human souls who are visibly present on earth, and how they can enter into the kingdom of God, and you believe not, then how can you believe me if I tell you about happenings in the heavenly realms, which are completely hidden from the ordinary human gaze?”
So many doubt heaven because they do not see it. Yet they do not doubt the breeze simply because it is unseen. It is known by its sound and sensation on the skin and the motion in the leaves and other objects. The whole universe lives, moves, breathes because of the invisible presence of God in the heavenly forces behind matter.
Once a man gave some olives to another who had never seen olives, and said, “These have a lot of oil in them.” The person cut the fruit but could see no oil — until his friend showed him how to squeeze the olives in order to extract the oil from the pulp. So it is with God. Everything in the universe is saturated with His presence — the twinkling stars, the rose, the song of the bird, our minds. His Being permeates everything, everywhere. But one has metaphorically to “squeeze” God out of His material concealment.
the “wilderness” of interior silence
The word “serpent” here refers metaphorically to man’s consciousness and life force in the subtle coiled passageway at the base of the spine, the matterward flow of which is to be reversed for man to reascend from body attachment to superconscious freedom. As souls we were all originally in God’s bosom. Spirit projects the desire to create an individualized expression of Itself. The soul becomes manifest and projects the idea of the body in causal form. The idea becomes energy, or the lifetronic astral body. The astral body becomes condensed into the physical body. Through the integrated spinal passageway of these three instrumental media, the soul descends into identification with the material body and gross matter.
they cast off physical consciousness and know themselves as angelic beings garbed in thought and light. We are all made in the image of God, beings of immortal consciousness cloaked in diaphanous heavenly light — a heritage buried beneath the cloddish flesh. That heritage we can only acknowledge by meditation.
Heavenly Father’s work in the world, he could in truth proclaim: “I am in heaven.” This is the highest ecstasy of God-consciousness, defined by yogis as nirvikalpa samadhi, an ecstatic state “without difference” between external consciousness and interior God-union. In savikalpa samadhi, “with difference,” a less exalted state, one is not conscious of the outer world; the body enters an inert trance while the awareness is immersed in interior conscious oneness with God. The most advanced masters can be fully conscious of God and not show any signs of the body being transfixed; the devotee drinks God and simultaneously is conscious and fully active in his external environment — if he so chooses.
Such is the “serpent force” (kundalini) in the microcosm of the human body: the coiled current at the base of the spine, a tremendous dynamo of life that when directed outward sustains the physical body and its sensory consciousness; and when consciously directed upward, opens the wonders of the astral cerebrospinal centers. When the soul, in its subtle sheaths of causal and astral bodies, enters physical incarnation at the time of conception, the entire body grows from the seed cell formed from the united sperm and ovum, beginning with the first vestiges of the medulla oblongata, brain, and spinal cord.
The coiled configuration in this astral center gives to the life energy therein the terminology of kundalini or serpent force (from Sanskrit kundala, “coiled”). Its creative work completed, the concentration of life force in this center is said to be “sleeping” kundalini, for as it emanates outward into the body, continuously enlivening the physical region of the senses — of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and of the earthbound physical creative force of sex — it causes the consciousness to become strongly identified with the delusive dreams of the senses and their domain of activity and desires.
Every human being has learned to enter subconsciousness in sleep; and everyone can likewise master the art of superconscious ecstasy, with its infinitely more enjoyable and restorative experience than can be gleaned from sleep. That higher state bestows the constant awareness that matter is the frozen imaginings of God, as in sleep our dreams and nightmares are our own ephemeral thought-creations, condensed or “frozen” into visual experiences through the objectifying power of our imagination. A dreaming person does not know that a nightmare is unreal until he wakes up.
With every good act man performs he is “ascending to heaven” — his mind becoming more focused at the Christ Center of heavenly perception; with every evil act he is descending into matter, his attention captivated by the phantoms of delusion.
But when that divine life energy is withdrawn from the autocratic senses, through the spinal path into the spiritual center of infinite perception in the brain, then the searchlight of astral energy is cast onto the boundlessness of eternity to reveal the universal Spirit. The devotee is then attracted by the Supernal Supernatural, the Beauty of all beauties, the Music of all
music, the Joy of all joys. He can touch Spirit all over the universe and can hear the voice of God reverberating throughout the spheres. The form dissolves in the Formless. The consciousness of the body, confined to a temporal, little form, illimitably expands into the formless, ever-existing Spirit.
CHAPTER 6 The True Meaning of “Belief on His Name” and Salvation
loving all human beings of whatever race and nationality is to know Christ-love.
To be saved he must reestablish his realization of inseparable unity with the Divine Immanence. “In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping, Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving, My soul constantly hums, unheard by any: God! God! God!”19 In this way one remains continually aware of his connection with the changeless Divine Intelligence — the Absolute Goodness underlying the provocative riddles of creation.
Through meditation, withdraw the consciousness and life energy from the senses and matter to intuit the Aum, the Word or all-pervading Cosmic Vibratory Energy that is the “name” or active manifestation of the immanent Christ Consciousness.
The soul, being a microcosm of Spirit, is an ever present light in man to lead him through discriminative intelligence and the intuitive voice of conscience; but all too often the rationalization of desireful habits and whims refuses to follow. Tempted by the Satan of cosmic delusion, man chooses actions that obliterate the light of discriminative inner guidance.
Succumbing to desires that keep their consciousness concentrated on and confined in the material world — the “darkness” or gross portion of cosmic creation in which the illumining Divine Presence is heavily obscured by the shadows of maya-delusion — benighted souls, humanly identified with mortal egos, repeatedly indulge their erroneous ways of living, which then become firmly entrenched in the brain as bad habits of mortal behavior.
The God-revealing light in the body is the single eye in the middle of the forehead, seen in deep meditation — the doorway into the presence of God.
As long as a person is intoxicated with evil thoughts and ways, his dark mentality will hate the light of truth. The one good thing about bad habits, however, is that they seldom keep their promises. They are eventually found out to be inveterate liars. That is why souls cannot forever be deceived or enslaved. Though people of bad habits initially recoil from the thought of better living, after they have had enough of evil ways and reach the point of satiety, and have suffered enough from the consequences, they turn for relief toward the wisdom-light of God, despite any
entrenched bad habits that must yet be vanquished.
CHAPTER 7 The Beatitudes And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:2 – 3). Parallel reference: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20).
During his teaching, Jesus let loose, through his voice as well as through his eyes, his divine life force and godly vibration to spread over the disciples, making them calmly attuned and magnetized, able to receive through their intuitional understanding of the full measure of his wisdom.
Those who possess true spirituality never make an ostentatious display of it; they rather express quite naturally a humble paucity of ego and its vainglorious trappings. To be “poor in spirit” is to have divested one’s inner being, his spirit, of desire for and attachment to material objects, earthly possessions, materially minded friends, selfish human love. Through this purification of inward renunciation, the soul finds that it has ever possessed all riches of the Eternal Kingdom of Wisdom and Bliss, and thenceforth dwells therein in constant communion with God and His saints.
“Blessed are you who cry for God-realization now, for by that single-minded yearning you shall attain. With the entertainment of ever new joy found in divine communion, you shall laugh and rejoice throughout eternity!”
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Humbleness and meekness create in man a bottomless receptacle of recipiency to hold Truth. A proud irascible individual, like the proverbial rolling stone, rolls down the hill of ignorance and gathers no moss of wisdom, while meek souls at peace in the valley of eager mental readiness gather waters of wisdom, flowing from sources human and divine, to nourish their flowering vale of soul qualities.
When man foolishly tries to quench his soul thirst with the substitutes of sense happiness, he gropes from one evanescent pleasure to another, ultimately rejecting them all as inadequate. Sense pleasures are of the body and lower mind; they bring no nourishment to man’s inmost being.
The wise alone can be really merciful, for with divine insight they perceive even wrongdoers as souls — God’s children who deserve sympathy, forgiveness, help, and guidance when they go astray.
Jesus’ words exhort the devotee: “To receive divine mercy, be merciful to yourself by making yourself spiritually qualified, and be merciful also to other deluded children of God. Persons who continuously develop themselves in every way, and who mercifully feel and alleviate the lack of all-round development in others, surely will melt the heart of God and obtain for themselves His unending and matchlessly helpful mercy.”
When reason is purified by calm discrimination it metamorphoses into wisdom. Pure wisdom and the divine understanding of a pure heart are the two sides of the same faculty.
Anyone who stirs up strife among brother nations under the guise of patriotism is a traitor to his divine family — a faithless child of God. Anyone who keeps family members, neighbors, or friends fighting through fostering falsehoods and gossip, or who is in any way a maker of disturbance, is a desecrator of God’s temple of harmony.
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10). The bliss of God will visit those souls who endure with equanimity the torture of the unjust criticism of so-called friends, as well as enemies, for doing what is right, and who remain uninfluenced by wrong customs or society’s harmful habits. A devotee of righteousness will not bend to social pressure to drink just because he happens to be at a gathering where cocktails are served, even when others mock him for nonparticipation in their pleasure. Moral rectitude brings short-term ridicule but long-term rejoicing, for persistence in self-control yields bliss and perfection. An eternal kingdom of heavenly joy, to enjoy in this life and the beyond, is earned by those who live and die in right behavior. Worldly people who prefer sensory indulgences to God-contact are truly the foolish ones, because by ignoring what is right, and therefore good for them, they will have to reap the consequences.
No matter how powerful temptations are, or how strong bad habits, they can be resisted with the wisdom-guided power of self-control and by holding to the conviction that no matter what pleasure is promised by temptation, it will always give sorrow in the end. The irresolute inevitably become hypocrites, justifying wrong behavior while succumbing to the wiles of temptation. The honey of God, though sealed in mystery, is what the soul truly craves. Those who meditate with undaunted patience and persistence break the mystery seal, and uninhibitedly imbibe the heavenly nectar of immortality. Heaven is that state of transcendental, omnipresent joy where no sorrows ever dare to tread. By steadfast righteousness, the devotee will ultimately reach that beatific bliss from which there is no fall. Vacillating devotees, not fixed in meditation, can slip from this supernal happiness; but those who are resolute gain that blessedness permanently.
Jesus encouraged his followers not to be dismayed or intimidated if in trying to live spiritually they find that materially minded persons do not understand. Those who can pass through the test of scorn cheerfully, and without yielding to wrong ways in order to “fit in,” will gain the happiness that results from clinging to virtuous bliss-yielding habits. It should be considered no great loss when the reproachers and haters and defamers “shall separate you from their company.” Actually, persons who are thus shunned are blessed that by such ostracism their souls are kept away from the bad influence of the company of nonunderstanding, misbehaving persons. The spiritually dedicated should never become despondent, no matter how people speak evil against them or vilify their good name in declarations of wrongdoing. Blessed are those whose name is denigrated for not cooperating with worldly or evil ways, for their names shall be engraved in the silently admiring heart of God.
The Bhagavad Gita (XII:18 – 19) similarly expresses the Lord’s regard for such devotees: “He who is tranquil before friend and foe alike, and in encountering adoration and insult, and during the experiences of warmth and chill and of pleasure and suffering; who has relinquished attachment, regarding blame and praise in the same light; who is quiet and easily contented, not attached to domesticity, and of calm disposition and devotional — that person is dear to Me.”
should hold to his joy-producing righteous actions uninfluenced by either praise or blame. But if one is wrong, he should be glad of the opportunity to correct himself and thus remove one more obstacle to lasting happiness. Even unjust criticism will make the disciple purer than ever and enthuse him all the more to follow the ways of inner peace instead of yielding to temptations urged by bad company.
Why waste all of one’s leisure hours in frequenting the movies or watching television, or in other idle pastimes? In cultivating and adhering to divine habits, the devotee finds true impetus to rejoice in his inner contentment and in knowing he will ultimately inherit the kingdom of eternal fulfillment.
To be hated, ostracized, reproached, or cast out is in itself no cause for blessing if one is morally or spiritually degenerate; but when despite persecution the devotee clings to truth as manifested in the life and teachings of a Christlike guru, then he will be free in everlasting blessedness. “Rejoice ye in that day, and feel the uplifting holy vibration of ever new joy; for behold, those who will toil and labor and accept pain to follow the divine way will be rewarded in heaven with eternal bliss.
Gradually, the light of the spiritual eye opens its portals, drawing the consciousness into progressively higher spheres of Heaven: the omnipresent golden aura of the Holy Ghost Cosmic Vibration in which are enfolded the mysteries of the finer forces that inform all regions of vibratory existence (wherein is found the “pearly gate” or entryway into the astral heaven through its pearl-like rainbow-hued firmament, or boundary wall); the Christ Heaven of God’s reflected Consciousness shining His intelligence on the vibratory realm of creation; and the ultimate heaven of Cosmic Consciousness, the everlasting, immutably blissful transcendental Kingdom of God.
The heavenly state of meditative bliss felt in this life is a foretaste of the ever new joy felt in the immortalized soul in the after-death state. The soul carries that joy into the sublime astral regions of celestial beauty, where lifetronic blossoms unfold their rainbow petals in the garden of ether, and where the climate, atmosphere, food, and inhabitants are made of different vibrations of multihued light — a kingdom of refined manifestations more in harmony with the essence of the soul than are the crudities of the earth.
Completely redeemed souls harbor no mortal desires in their hearts when they leave the shores of the earth. These souls become permanently fixed as pillars in the mansion of Cosmic Consciousness, and never again reincarnate on the earth plane, unless they do so willingly in order to bring earthbound souls back to God.
They demonstrate the power and superior influence of love over hate, wisdom over ignorance, even if it means martyrdom. They refuse to give up their truths no matter the degree of physical or mental persecution, dishonor, or false accusations; and just as steadfastly, they refuse to hate their persecutors or to use the expediency of revenge to quell their enemies. They demonstrate and retain the restraint and forbearance of God’s all-forgiving love, being themselves sheltered in that Infinite Grace.
CHAPTER 8 Divine Love: Highest Goal of Religion and of Life
And he answering said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”
There is but one Originator of all capabilities of man: God is the Creator of our love with which we love, of our souls with which we claim immortality, of our minds and mental processes with which we think and reason and accomplish, of our vitality with which we engage in the activities of life. We should use all these
gifts in a supreme energetic effort in meditation to express our love to God until we feel consciously His responding manifestation.
To “love God with all your mind” means with focused concentration. India has specialized in the science of concentrating the mind one-pointedly through definite techniques, so that during the time of worship the devotee is able to keep his whole attention on God.
To “love God with all your soul” means to enter the state of superconscious ecstasy, direct perception of the soul and its oneness with God. When no thoughts cross the mind, but there is a conscious all-knowingness, when one knows through intuitive realization that he can do anything just by so ordering it, then one is in the expanded state of superconsciousness. It is the realization of the soul as the reflection of God, the soul’s connection with the consciousness of God. It is a state of exceeding joy: the soul’s crystalline perception of the omnipresent Spirit reflected as the joy of meditation.
Ten million sleeps do not describe the joy of it. That is the state in which one can know the soul, and with that true Self wholly adore Him who is Love itself.
Jesus went very deep in teachings that appear on the surface to be simple — much deeper than most people understand. That he taught the entire yoga system, the scientific method of union with God, is evidenced in the Book of Revelation in the mystery of the seven stars and seven churches with their seven angels and seven golden candlesticks. God-realization is attained by opening the “seven seals” of these centers of spiritual perception to attain mastery over all astral powers of life and death through which the soul ascends to liberation. Jesus emphasized that salvation begins with those practices that enable the devotee truly to love God with the supreme offerings of heart, mind, soul, and strength.
When God’s immanence penetrates man’s understanding, it awakens man to his duty and privilege to worship God templed in himself (through meditation), and templed in all beings and things in the universe (through love of his neighbor in the proximity of his cosmic home). Even saints who love God in transcendental ecstasy in meditation find complete redemption only after they have shared their divine attainment by loving God as manifested in all souls in the omnipresent neighborhood of their soul.
Again and again he spoke of the kingdom of the Heavenly Father and the method of its attainment: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” “And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.”
The incipient origin of all material forms and material vibrations lies in Cosmic Consciousness. Matter is condensed physical energy; physical energy is condensed astral energy; and astral energy is condensed prototypic thought force of God.
That realization gradually unfolds itself as omnipresence, omniscience, ever new bliss, and visions of the realms of eternal light in which all liberated souls move in God, materializing or dematerializing themselves at will. No one can enter this heaven of Cosmic Consciousness unless through the gates of devout concentration and meditation he can penetrate his consciousness deeply within himself. That is why Jesus said unequivocally, “The kingdom of God is within you,” that is, within the transcendent states of your soul perceptions.
Shining in all the sense faculties, yet transcending the senses; unattached to creation, yet the Mainstay of all; free from the gunas (modes of Nature), yet the Enjoyer of them.
Patanjali, India’s foremost ancient exponent of Raja Yoga, outlined eight steps to be followed for ascension into the kingdom of God within.
- Niyama: purity of body and mind, contentment in all circumstances, self-discipline, self-study (contemplation), and devotion to God.
The tissues of the physical body are made up of cells; the tissue of the astral body is composed of lifetrons — intelligent units of light or life energy. When man is in a state of body attachment, characterized by tension or contraction of life energy into atomic components, the lifetrons of the astral body become compacted, circumscribed by identification with the physical form. By metaphysical relaxation, the lifetronic structure begins to expand — the grip of the flesh on one’s identity loosens.
As a mute person drinking nectar imbibes but cannot describe the ambrosial flavor, so the rapture of bliss found in the temple of samadhi moves the experiencer to wordless eloquence. That joy alone can satisfy the innate craving of the human heart. In patient, persistent meditation, day after day, year after year, the devotee lovingly demands of his Lord: “Come to me as joy in samadhi-oneness, and remain forever in my heart on the altar of bliss!”
Teresa of Avila) speaks of his own experiences of God as the Holy Ghost in Stanzas 14 and 15 of his sublime Spiritual Canticle. Explaining the symbolism, Saint John describes the “roaring torrents” as “a spiritual sound and voice overpowering all other sounds and voices in the world…. “This voice, or this murmuring sound of the waters, is an overflowing so abundant as to fill the soul with good, and a power so mighty seizing upon it as to seem not only the sound of many waters, but a most loud roaring of thunder.
But the voice is a spiritual voice, unattended by material sounds or the pain and torment of them, but rather with majesty, power, might, delight, and glory: it is, as it were, a voice, an infinite interior sound which endows the soul with power and might. The Apostles heard in spirit this voice when the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the sound ‘as of a mighty wind,’ as we read in the Acts of the Apostles.”…
If through practice of meditation one keeps knocking on the doors of silence, God will respond: “Come in. I whispered to you through all guises of nature; and now I say to you, I am Joy — the living Fountain of Joy. Bathe in My waters — wash away your habits, cleanse yourself of fears. I dreamed a beautiful dream for you; but, My child, you made of it a nightmare.” God wants His children to be no longer prodigal sons, but to play their roles in life as immortals, that when they leave the stage of this earth they can say, “Father, that was a nice entertainment, but now I am ready to come Home.”
The proximity of happiness is as close as one’s own Self; it isn’t even a matter of attaining, but only of lifting the soul-shrouding veil of ignorance. The very word “attaining” implies something one wants but does not have — a metaphysical error. Bliss is the irrevocable divine birthright of every soul. Tear away the intrusive veil, and at once there is contact with that happiness supreme.
The habit of being inwardly in the calm presence of God must be developed, so that day and night that consciousness will remain steadfast. It is worth the effort; for to live in the consciousness of God is to be done with enslavement to disease, suffering, and fear. Just be with God; that is the be-all and end-all of life. If one resolves never to go to sleep at night without meditating and feeling the Divine Presence, into one’s life will come happiness beyond all expectation. Effort is necessary, but that effort will make one a king enthroned in the kingdom of peace and joy. Time spent in the pursuit of extraneous material things is a waste of man’s precious opportunities to know God. I am telling you this from my heart: Blessed is he who makes up his mind never to rest until he has found God.
Every day’s meditation must be deeper than yesterday’s. The devotee who makes the divine quest his overriding concern will find in the kingdom of God eternal safety; no tremor of trouble or trials can cross the threshold of his sanctuary of silence wherein naught is allowed ingress but the blissful, all-loving Father-Mother God. One who finds within himself that “secret place of the most High” becomes suffused with supreme happiness and divine security. Whether he is mixing with friends or sleeping or working, he keeps that place only for God. With his consciousness centered in the Lord, he finds maya’s concentric veils suddenly lifting; in joy the devotee sees God playing hide-and-seek with him in the blossoms, and the stars shining with a stronger Light, and the sky smiling with the Infinite. When his eyes are spiritually opened, the devotee beholds, peering at him through the eyes of everyone, the eyes of the Infinite. Behind the kind or unkind voice of everyone he hears the truthful voice of the Infinite. Behind the wise or helter-skelter will of everyone he perceives the constancy of the will of God. Behind all human loves he feels the supreme love of God. What a wonderful existence, when all of God’s disguises are cast off and the devotee is face to face with the Infinite, in blissful oneness of divine communion!
Be always intoxicated with the Divine, with the wave of your consciousness ever at rest on the bosom of the Eternal Sea. When one is kicking and splashing about in the water, there is little consciousness of the ocean itself, but of the struggle. But when one lets go and relaxes, the body floats; it feels in its buoyancy the whole sea lapping around it. That is the way the calm devotee feels God, with the whole universe of Divine Happiness rocking gently beneath his consciousness.
God’s kingdom is within you; He is within you. Just behind your perceptions, just behind your thoughts, just behind your feelings, He is. Every grain of food you eat, every breath you take, is God. You are not living by food or oxygen, but by the Cosmic Word of God.
Those who are wise never miss their daily engagement with God in meditation. They make it the consuming goal of their existence to contact Him. All who persist with that sincerity shall enter the kingdom of God in this life; and to abide in that kingdom is to be eternally free.