# The Second Coming of Christ  ## Metadata - Author: [[Paramahansa Yogananda]] - Full Title: The Second Coming of Christ - Category: #books ## Highlights - The eternal, omnipresent, unchanging Spirit has neither a corporeal nor heavenly form called God. ([Location 635](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=635)) - The glory of Christ in the form of Jesus made visible the Invisible Light that leads to God. ([Location 646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=646)) - Though man cast himself into the darkest abyss of God-forgetfulness, spurning the Lord in favor of rampant material gratifications, yet is he ultimately rescued by the pull of God’s love within and around him that aids in a natural upward evolutionary return to God. ([Location 1139](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1139)) - To cast a cloth mantle on another has no transforming power in and of itself. But the casting of a master’s garment of Self-realization over the consciousness of an advanced disciple is the baptism by the Holy Ghost. ([Location 1261](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1261)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - (Which came first, the tree or the seed? The tree, of course, which was then endowed with the ability to produce its own kind.) ([Location 1359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1359)) - Note: But not an actual term for chicken until next gen born of egg - Spiritual signs appear on the body and face of one who is a realized soul; these signs are held secret, and only a few know how to read them. ([Location 1606](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1606)) - Life and death, animate and inanimate matter, were all seen by the child Jesus as manipulatable vibrations of God’s consciousness. ([Location 1792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1792)) - Nature’s laws are activated quite ingenuously by one who knows his unity with the omnipresent Universal Consciousness through which all existences are created, sustained, and dissolved. ([Location 1795](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=1795)) - Jesus was an Oriental, by birth and blood and training. ([Location 2080](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2080)) - Jesus was to do this by inspiring the world with a new consciousness through revival of the true rite of baptism by Spirit, the transformation of consciousness by immersion in the sacred vibration of the Holy Ghost. ([Location 2464](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2464)) - Baptism in the vibration of the Holy Ghost loosens the hold of bad habits and wrong desires, and aids in the establishment of good habits and desires—ultimately transmuting desire itself into a single-hearted attraction to blessed contact with God. ([Location 2693](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2693)) - The entirety of vibratory creation is an externalization of Spirit. [See Discourse 1.] 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. Spirit expresses Itself as beauty and magnetic and chemical power in minerals and gems; as beauty and life in plants; as beauty, life, power, motion, and consciousness in animals; as comprehension and expanding power in man; and again returns to Omnipresence in the superman.3 ([Location 2766](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2766)) - This is the goal of advancement, seen only in supernal beings. It can be experienced for short intervals, or by the highly advanced for months at a time, or for even a few years by those who attain what Yoga describes as Brahmasthiti, the state of being permanently established in God-union. ([Location 2824](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2824)) - By the storm of vibration, God’s thoughts of multiplicity brought forth the waves of manifestation: His lila, or divine play. ([Location 2962](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=2962)) - Man should know that his struggle for completeness is born of delusion; for he already has all he needs within his inner powerful Self. ([Location 3167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3167)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - The gauntlet flung at the feet of Everyman is to face Evil, battle it with the armaments of wisdom, and win the victory.19 ([Location 3218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3218)) - This transcendent overview sets apart one who awakens in Cosmic Consciousness. His soul rejoices in the repossession of its memory of wisdom: “Ah, nothing exists but Pure Eternal Goodness—the one Immutable Spirit.” ([Location 3244](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3244)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - It was during the Christ state, in which he could feel his consciousness in every atomic cell of his cosmic body of all matter, that he could act as a savior of mankind. Only a soul who attains this universality is able to feel perfect identity with God, qualified thereby to become an emissary of the Divine. ([Location 3332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3332)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Jesus showed his mastery over the body by the manifestation of Cosmic Consciousness during his forty days of fasting and meditation. After attaining such a state, it makes no difference whether a master eats normally to remain in touch with his human nature, or whether he eats sparingly or not at all. ([Location 3565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3565)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - the will becomes established in righteousness. Until then, the way to all righteousness lies in following the wisdom-guidance and sadhana of a master who is divinely empowered to bestow enlightenment on others. ([Location 3995](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=3995)) - But masters can peer behind the purely physical facade and with intuitive perception recognize the soul’s individuality, unchanged from one lifetime to another. ([Location 4095](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4095)) - Astral beings can concentrate upon anything in the particular stratum to which they are assigned and know about its nature through the instantaneous knowledge-producing power of intuition. ([Location 4213](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4213)) - Keep the heart free from jealousy, anger, selfishness; love all persons unconditionally, in spite of their weaknesses—that is the way to become an angelic son of man, in tune with the angels and fully liberated sons of God. By following Jesus, Nathanael would be led into his own position among that holy heavenly host. ([Location 4304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4304)) - Swami Shankara sang of the enlightenment of bodily transcendence: “No birth, no death, no caste have I. Father, mother, have I none. I am He, I am He; blessed Spirit, I am He.” ([Location 4337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4337)) - Tags: [[favorite]] [[pink]] - Jesus knew that underlying and controlling all atomic matter is the one unifying and balancing power of Divine Intelligence and Will—that all matter can be followed back to its origin in consciousness if dissolved into its constituent parts. ([Location 4418](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4418)) - “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ([Location 4710](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4710)) - That primordial forgetfulness is vanquished only by Self-realization, through the intuitive power by which the soul directly apprehends its own nature as individualized Spirit and perceives Spirit as the essence of everything. ([Location 4736](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4736)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - By meditation, man’s consciousness is transferred from the body to the soul, and through the soul’s power of intuition he experiences himself not as a mortal body (a phenomenon of objective nature), but as immortal indwelling consciousness, one with the noumenal Divine Essence. ([Location 4888](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4888)) - 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. ([Location 4934](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=4934)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - 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. ([Location 5054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=5054)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Note: Coo! Word - “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). He sees truly who perceives the Supreme Lord present equally in all creatures, the Imperishable amidst the perishing.” ([Location 5515](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=5515)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - to realize that in truth it is Spirit that has become creation, that all things are naught else but a glorious diversification of God. ([Location 5520](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=5520)) - “To truly worship God is to worship Him as transcendent Spirit in Nature and beyond Nature.…It is then that the devotee finds emancipation by becoming one with the Spirit.” ([Location 5792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=5792)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - To remove the ignorance that eclipses man’s divine nature is the most important of all forms of healing; that is the blessing Jesus would impart to all who attuned themselves with the Christ in him. ([Location 5998](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=5998)) - They follow not the wisdom will of the Divine Director but their own blind will. Thus they turn their scenes into tiresome tragedies. ([Location 6095](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=6095)) - Jesus points out that it is far better to make the effort to know what one already possesses as a divine child. ([Location 6144](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=6144)) - He who has reformed himself has reformed thousands; for what one sows in the ether, by the vibrations of his thoughts and character, others will surely reap. ([Location 6190](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=6190)) - A master can heal the body by restructuring its underlying energy matrix ([Location 6291](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=6291)) - The slower progression of the physical healing is simply catching up with the spiritual healing that has already taken place. ([Location 6339](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=6339)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - “When man directs all his organs of sense toward their common center, the sensorium or Sushumnadwara, the door of the internal world, he perceives…Pranava Sabda, the Word of God. Thus perceiving, man naturally believes in the existence of the true Spiritual Light, and, withdrawing his self from the outer world, concentrates himself on the sensorium.…By this Samyama or concentration of self on the sensorium [through yoga techniques of meditation], man becomes baptized or absorbed in the holy stream of the Divine Sound.… ([Location 7029](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=7029)) - When a reformed Spirit-bound soul inspires another spiritual fugitive to return to God, that service to a fellow being is considered the highest human duty. ([Location 7157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=7157)) - Similarly, there are two kinds of people in this world. One kind have their spiritual eyes of wisdom open; they see God and His goodness existing everywhere, in everything. The second kind have their spiritual eyes closed; they experience creation as rife with Satan and his evils. ([Location 7577](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=7577)) - If one removes by meditation and God-contact the disease of ignorance constraining the soul, then automatically mental and physical karmic compulsions lose their hold as well. ([Location 7908](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=7908)) - Thus did Jesus admonish: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God (destroy delusion) and all else (the consummation of all man’s prayers, including for healing of the body, mind, and soul) will be added unto you (as your divine birthright as a child of God).” ([Location 7910](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=7910)) - Yoga chitta vritti nirodha—“Yoga (scientific union with God) is the neutralization of the modifications of chitta (the inner ‘heart’ or power of feeling; a comprehensive term for the aggregate of mind-stuff that produces intelligent consciousness).” ([Location 8172](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8172)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - The Bhagavad Gita 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.” ([Location 8283](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8283)) - astral beings’ will power, which can materialize, manipulate, and dematerialize the lifetronic substance of that finer world according to preference. ([Location 8345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8345)) - Man weaves a life in harmony with God to the extent that he abides by the code of righteousness. The foremost in the kingdom of God automatically obey the greatest and the least laws of the life divine; because they are one with Cosmic Consciousness, their actions are in effortless accord with truth. But whosoever does not live the life of righteousness in all its details, acting from less-than-perfect attunement with truth as commanded from within by the voice of conscience and intuition, shall not be as highly regarded, according to the standards of God-known souls. ([Location 8551](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8551)) - Desire-propelled human beings are like uncontrolled barges rushing down the floodstream of worldly life, headed over the rocky falls of crushing experiences into the oblivion of death. The boats of wisdom-guided lives steer out of the powerful current of social convention and customs and reach the shores of all-redeeming contentment in God. ([Location 8579](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8579)) - if one can courageously face down an erring brother with love, that is to possess a mighty spiritual power—the transforming, healing power of divine love. ([Location 8841](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8841)) - Note: Bart - early crying fit transference and head punch - A spiritual man of high order feels no grievous loss when he is parted from any of his material possessions, for whatever reason—be it from court judgments or for someone in need. His heartfelt generosity of spirit gives with an open hand. The spiritual man sees God not only in his own body but in the bodies of others. In oneness with God, he sees himself as the Self of all, and finds equal enjoyment whether he himself dons his “cloak” or takes it off from his one body and puts it on another one of his bodies. Whatever the divine person does for another, he feels by such action that he has in a nonattached way done this for himself, only in another body—just as one transfers a ring from one finger to another. ([Location 8852](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8852)) - Those who love their enemies are surely loved by the Heavenly Father and become like Him, for God “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Bhagavan Krishna similarly said: “He is a supreme yogi (one united to God) who regards with equal-mindedness…friends, enemies…the virtuous and the ungodly.”19 ([Location 8969](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=8969)) - If one has concern for others as he regards himself, the Spirit will reward him with the perception of Omnipresence—God’s all-pervasive love and bliss sent openly into his heart. ([Location 9102](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9102)) - Tags: [[pink]] [[favorite]] - Sensations pouring in through the sensory nerves keep the mind filled with myriad noisy thoughts, so that the whole attention is toward the senses. But God’s voice is silence. Only when restless thoughts cease can one hear the voice of God communicating through the silence of intuition. ([Location 9172](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9172)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - have loved thee through the ages; I love thee now; and I shall love thee until thou comest Home. Whether thou knowest it or not, I shall always love thee.” He speaks to us in silence, telling us to come Home. ([Location 9183](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9183)) - The Gita similarly teaches: “On Me fix thy mind, be thou My devotee, with ceaseless worship bow reverently before Me. Having thus united thyself to Me as thy Highest Goal, thou shalt be Mine own.”6 ([Location 9216](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9216)) - In the morning upon awakening, impress on the consciousness: “I am just coming out of Spirit. I am Spirit now; and I shall be Spirit evermore.” But when one has a headache, he quickly forgets his sublimity and feels very mortal indeed. If man remembers at all times his true Self, he becomes free again. ([Location 9332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9332)) - Temptation is the undue influence on the senses of something alluring that one thinks is harmless, but isn’t. It is the desire to have a moment’s pleasure, disregarding its future ill effects. ([Location 9347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9347)) - I have always prayed, “Lord, why don’t You reveal Yourself in the very beginning and then there will be no suffering from seeking pleasure in harmful actions?” ([Location 9355](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9355)) - The Hindu scriptures teach that it is difficult to get away from the effects arising from physical, mental, moral, or spiritual errors made in this life or in past lives. The results of good and bad actions are stored in the superconscious and subconscious minds as seed tendencies, samskaras, ready to germinate and grow when the specific suitable opportunity arrives. That is why man should ask the Maker of cosmic delusion to protect him from temptation: “Lead us not into places and conditions where our karmic impulses coincide with the temptations of the evils of the world. Lead us into the joyous experience of Thy contact.” ([Location 9384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9384)) - God created forgiveness; Satan created revenge. God created calmness, fearlessness, unselfishness, spirit of brotherhood, peace, love, understanding, wisdom, and happiness, and for each of these Satan created its psychological opposite of restlessness, fear, greed, individual and material selfishness, war, hate; anger, revenge, and jealousy instead of understanding; ignorance in place of wisdom; and sorrow to destroy happiness. ([Location 9402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9402)) - To know that God is in all, and to forgive the deluded wrongdoers through whom God is trying, albeit as yet unsuccessfully, to express Himself, is to be a master. ([Location 9424](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9424)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - The masters of India similarly say: “To become one with the Supreme Being is to have destroyed all the roots of suffering.” That is real freedom. ([Location 9733](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9733)) - follow a healthful diet, and practice the technique of life-force control given by a true guru who has mastered every passion within himself and can teach the art of control by sublimation. A man who can match his will power against sex compulsion and win, and who can convince the mind that the peace and moral virility of the transmuting power of self-control is greater than sex indulgence, is a heroic conqueror of his lower self. ([Location 9992](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=9992)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - To be able humbly to stand the barbs of criticism, just or unjust, and to make continuous effort to improve one’s attitudes and behavior when criticism is justified, will make one a saint. ([Location 10104](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=10104)) - Physical scientists expose Nature’s truth of the evolution of matter; but spiritual masters, sometimes dramatically, reveal the subtler truth of the soul’s evolution through successive incarnations. Think ([Location 10509](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=10509)) - Jesus characterized as imprudent the use of the new inspiration emanating directly from his spirit for mending the fusty garment of spiritual customs. ([Location 10699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=10699)) - Note: Yeah well how about non networked kriya pledge to sole secrecy? - But he does not all at once become like the master, as is too often prematurely assumed from brief flashes of insight. A master is he who is perfected in the art of contacting God. Only ([Location 11244](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11244)) - An individual’s speech, no matter how dressed up with polished language, resonates with the inner tendencies abiding in that person’s heart. ([Location 11333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11333)) - One Sankhya4 aphorism reads: Ishvar asiddhe (“A Lord of Creation cannot be deduced” or “God is not proved”). My guru, Sri Yukteswar, explained: “The verse is not atheistical. It merely signifies that to the unenlightened man, dependent on his senses for all final judgments, proof of God must remain unknown and therefore non-existent.” ([Location 11488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11488)) - That is how Lord Krishna counseled his disciple Arjuna: “The ultimate wisdom of Sankhya I have explained to thee. But now thou must hear about the wisdom of Yoga, equipped with which, O Arjuna, thou shalt shatter the bonds of karma.” ([Location 11538](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11538)) - As stated by Patanjali: “The attainment [of the goal of yoga—divine union with God] is nearest to those possessing tivra-samvega, divine ardor (fervent devotion and striving for God, and extreme dispassion toward the world of the senses).”18 ([Location 11696](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11696)) - The overall tenor of a person’s thoughts and feelings during his earth life thus renders the “verdict” on “the day of judgment.” The final impression left in one’s consciousness, the distilled essence of his predominant habits of a lifetime, is thus the karmic judge that at the sound of “Gabriel’s trumpet” announces a man’s next destination.26 ([Location 11816](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=11816)) - A kind and merciful God would never throw a sinner into an eternally tormenting furnace of fire; even the greatest sinner in the after-death state is an immutable, immortal soul and has a luminous astral body that cannot be burned by any physical fire.13 ([Location 13108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=13108)) - masters can transmit God-consciousness into advanced disciples.8 ([Location 13515](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=13515)) - A judge whose authority and admonitions are feared or admired in the courtroom is divested of that power at home with his wife; indeed, subject to admonishment by her! It is a psychological fact that familiarity without respect breeds contempt. It is a natural worldly tendency for persons living in close relationships to evaluate each other not as souls but in terms of one’s own expectations, resulting in erosion of mutual regard, lack of courtesy, overfamiliarity, suspiciousness, insulting speech or acts. In distant closeness love lives. In wrong familiarity love dies. One should never take others for granted and thereby fail to appreciate the divine uniqueness of every soul. ([Location 13753](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=13753)) - To save others, one must first save oneself. To heal others, one must have healing power. Only those who are thoroughly grounded in meditation so that there is real contact of their hearts, minds, and souls with God (whether or not they have book learning) are qualified to teach. ([Location 13941](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=13941)) - Jesus was a yogi, constantly engaged in divine union, and a man of renunciation as well. He not only contacted God in his spirit and inwardly rose above all material attachments, but he also practiced nonattachment to material things in his outward life. ([Location 14179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14179)) - A teacher of God’s word must be an exemplar of the highest ideals of self-abnegation for the greater love of serving God and truth-seeking souls. ([Location 14229](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14229)) - In the context of the reference in Luke cited above (21:14 – 15), as also in St. John (14:26), Jesus assures his disciples of his intercession in times of need: “‘I will give you a mouth and wisdom’—you will feel my spirit of Christ Consciousness with you, manifesting in ‘the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost…he shall teach you all things.’” ([Location 14420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14420)) - “He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me”—who fights not temptations with self-discipline and in meditation uplifts his mind from the plane of senses to enter the star door in the spiritual eye that leads to Christ Consciousness—“is not worthy of me,” of my divine Christ-kingdom. ([Location 14609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14609)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Because these gross vibrations of cosmic delusion distort and eclipse the true nature of matter as made of God’s consciousness, this outflowing creative power is referred to as Prakriti’s impure nature, Apara-Prakriti. It is this aspect to which Satan is equated, ([Location 14710](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14710)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - When the energy from the senses is concentrated by meditation in the divine astral center in the brain, the devotee is spoken of as having attained heaven. ([Location 14724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14724)) - Though Jesus’ disciples were mostly uneducated in scholarly matters, he found them receptive to a higher knowledge than that of the rationalizing intellect. Divine realization, perception of the Infinite, is unrelated to academic degrees. ([Location 14752](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14752)) - That devotee becomes filled with intuitive wisdom who is childlike in guilelessness, free of presumption and doubt, full of sincerity, humble and receptive. That devotee finds God. ([Location 14767](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14767)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - When the devotee, through protractive devout endeavor, is able to enter the ecstasy of meditation and become one with the superconscious state, he then attains, with the help of his guru and advanced techniques, an expanded ecstasy in which he perceives himself as a vast light and endless consciousness in which he finds all galaxies, star rivers, and vibratory objects glimmering like glowworms within his omnipresent Self. When the devotee by passing his consciousness through his inner spiritual eye experiences this vast cosmic vision, he is spoken of as having attained Christ Consciousness. The whole vibratory universe, and everything in it, is felt as his own Self, just as he feels all the cells and the different parts of his own physical body. After attaining Christ Consciousness, the devotee goes further, beyond all vibratory space, into an indescribable state of Cosmic Consciousness of pure ever new Joy, Consciousness, and Existence. Here in this Cosmic Consciousness no eddies of vibration or change can disturb the absolute bliss of the consciousness of the devotee merged in divine union with God. ([Location 14789](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=14789)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Indeed he prophesied correctly about the nature of those who come to masters with sweet language and respectful utterances but with hearts sunk deep in the depths of insincerity. In vain do such men worship God, since they ‘teach for doctrines the commandments of men’ in preference to the commandments of God. ([Location 15711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=15711)) - According to the great sage Patanjali, the feelings of the heart (chitta) are responsible for all our entanglements in earthly lives.8 ([Location 15791](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=15791)) - Souls are sent on earth as perfect images of God to be entertained there, to witness and experience the wonders of creation with the attitude of a divine being. ([Location 15794](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=15794)) - In the twelfth century, Sri Chaitanya came in India to ignite in men’s hearts an ardent love for God. His path of bhakti or all-surrendering devotion restored the primacy of actually experiencing a personal relationship with God, a concept demeaned by the abstrusely philosophizing pundits and scholars who influenced the practice of religion at that time. ([Location 15874](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=15874)) - “What is truth?”—about oneself and God. ([Location 15885](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=15885)) - Jesus’ question and his disciples’ reply indicate the common knowledge and acceptance in Jesus’ time of the law of reincarnation, evidenced also in several other passages of the Gospels.2 ([Location 16097](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16097)) - Man’s susceptibility to suffering comes through ignorance of his innate divinity; how indolently he neglects the development of the power that can master the body and keep it in the palm of the hand of his soul. ([Location 16619](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16619)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - And he who receives my Christ Consciousness pervading the finite cosmos ultimately receives the transcendent Cosmic Consciousness that sent the Christ Intelligence as Its pure reflection in vibratory creation. That soul, having been released from its egoistic body consciousness and having become united with the infinite Cosmic Consciousness is, in the eyes of metaphysical law, the greatest in the kingdom of heaven—one with the Peerless Spirit.” ([Location 16754](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16754)) - Therefore Jesus cites the example of children as a reminder to the devotee of the childlike qualities so often subverted in the adult mentality and habits—lack of egotism, body consciousness, selfishness, and attachment; and presence of purity, guilelessness, innocence, obedience, humbleness, meekness, love, trust, and joy. Only when a devotee becomes possessed of these qualities through deep meditation and practice of self-discipline does he prepare himself to receive and manifest Christ Consciousness. ([Location 16775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16775)) - The truly great master-minds of India that I have seen are divinely childlike, displaying the qualities that are natural to a pure mind—sincerity, frankness, nonattachment, universality, uniformity of action-thought-speech, forgiveness, truthfulness, calmness, sweetness, laughter, and freedom from worry—minus the child’s ignorance. ([Location 16851](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16851)) - In the so-called civilized world, the one who is served by others, “he that sitteth at meat,” is usually considered of a higher social standing than “he that serveth”; but it is different in heaven. By illustration and example Jesus stressed that according to divine law the superior position is that of service. Heavenly beings find supreme joy, not in receiving empty adoration, but in helping one another serve the universal order as God’s angels and in aiding in the upliftment and liberation of souls. ([Location 16927](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=16927)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Christlike souls who commune with God have distinctly declared, by precept and by example, that anyone who aspires to know Him must learn to demonstrate the godliness of conquering evil by good, hate by love, revengeful actions by the loving forgiveness of helpful actions, unkindness by kindly thoughtfulness, harshness by graciousness, pride by humbleness, cruelty by kindness, unrighteousness by righteousness, falsehood by truth, jealousy by love, temptation by self-control and meditation, restlessness by calmness, harsh speech by considerate words, evil behavior by exemplary conduct, selfishness by openhearted selflessness, theological arrogance by Self-realization. ([Location 17390](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=17390)) - Within the sushumna is the vajra lifetronic tunnel, and within that is the chitra lifetronic tunnel. By transitioning through the threefold astral spine of sushumna, vajra, and chitra, the yogi is freed from the astral body and is then in a causal body, an ideational matrix of magnetized consciousness, in the causal world. By further advancement, he frees himself from the causal body by transition through the causal “spine,” the innermost channel, or brahmanadi—ascending out of his causal form into the Infinite Brahman or Spirit. ([Location 27628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=27628)) - Tags: [[blue]] [[favorite]] - At the time of death a yogi reaches the Supreme Effulgent Lord if, with love and by the power of yoga, he fully penetrates his life force between the eyebrows (the seat of the spiritual eye), and if he fixes his mind unwaveringly on the Being who, beyond all delusions of darkness, shines like the sun—the One whose form is unimaginable, subtler than the finest atom, the Supporter of all, the Great Ruler, eternal and omniscient.”10 ([Location 27634](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=27634)) - Tags: [[blue]] - This transcendent freedom can be achieved by the yogi who has not only opened his spiritual eye, but by further concentration has discovered its inner mechanism—when one is sufficiently advanced to leave the body through the blue Christ-sphere and the star door to Cosmic Consciousness in the spiritual eye. Otherwise one passes only through the outermost, golden ring of the spiritual eye and exits the material body through the astral center in the medulla oblongata at the base of the skull. But departure can also be through the top of the head, through the occult portal known as the Brahmarandhra, Brahma’s Door. This is in the seventh astral center, the sahasrara or “thousand-petaled lotus” in the cerebrum. It is closed in the ordinary individual; but when one is highly advanced this Brahma’s Door opens. Through it one reaches Brahma directly; by exiting consciously through that opening in the thousand-petaled lotus center of Cosmic Consciousness one ascends directly to the God the Father region. ([Location 27639](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=27639)) - Tags: [[blue]] - These emissaries of God speak with a united voice that the way to ascension is to love all, forgetting oneself in selfless service and upliftment of others; to disengage oneself from attachments to the senses, to possessions, and to the emotions that keep one body- and ego-bound (anger, fear, lust, greed); and to love God supremely and meditate so deeply that one can at will enter the ecstasy of superconsciousness—the portal to the final states of ascension in Christ (Kutastha Chaitanya) and Cosmic Consciousness (Sat-Chit-Ananda). ([Location 27856](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=27856)) - Tags: [[blue]] [[favorite]] - The Light of All Lights, beyond darkness; Knowledge itself, That which is to be known, the Goal of all learning, He is seated in the hearts of all. ([Location 28033](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28033)) - soul. Through that spiritual eye you can enter the sphere of awakened silence. ([Location 28263](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28263)) - Just say to the Lord: “I am having a good time participating in Your cosmic drama, and I am happy with whatever You send to me.” That is living in the real spirit of Christ. ([Location 28307](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28307)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - May Christ come in your consciousness a second time as prosperity, as health, as the perception and fulfillment of all your hopes in the divine consciousness. And may Christ come to you in finding divine love through the perfection of your love in some human relationship, and in finding omnipresence in your human consciousness. May Christ come, bringing to you infinite bliss, infinite wisdom, infinite joy, as He is born in the cradle of your heart. May Christ come to you a second time in the vibration of your body as the Aum out of which all bodies, all universes, have been created. May He come a second time—to you—and be established in your consciousness forever. ([Location 28578](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28578)) - Crucify your ignorance and hidebound evil customs and rise from the tomb of narrowness into the openness of Cosmic Brotherhood. ([Location 28625](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28625)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Every being, every object, every vibration on the material plane has an astral counterpart, for in the astral universe (heaven) is the blueprint of our material universe. At physical death, the soul of man, clothed in an astral body of light, ascends to one of the higher or lower astral planes, according to merit, to continue his spiritual evolution in the greater freedom of that subtle realm. There he remains for a karmically predetermined time until physical rebirth. ([Location 28996](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=28996)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - avatar. From the Sanskrit avatara, with roots ava, “down,” and tri, “to pass.” Souls who attain union with Spirit and then return to earth to help mankind are called avatars, divine incarnations. ([Location 29012](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29012)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Whatever physical man can do in imagination, causal man can do in actuality—the only limitation being thought itself. Ultimately, man sheds the last soul covering—his causal body—to unite with omnipresent Spirit, beyond all vibratory realms. ([Location 29061](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29061)) - Christ. The honorific title of Jesus: ([Location 29080](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29080)) - (The Greek word Christos means “anointed,” as does the Hebrew word Messiah.) ([Location 29082](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29082)) - Self-realization. Paramahansa Yogananda has defined Self-realization as “the knowing—in body, mind, and soul—that we are one with the omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God’s omnipresence is our omnipresence; that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.” ([Location 29373](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29373)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Shankara reorganized the ancient Swami Order, and founded four great maths (monastic centers of spiritual education), whose leaders in apostolic succession bear the title of Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya. The meaning of Jagadguru is “world teacher.” ([Location 29410](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29410)) - siddha. Literally, “one who is successful.” One who has attained Self-realization. ([Location 29413](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29413)) - The spiritual eye is the entryway into the ultimate states of divine consciousness. In deep meditation, as the devotee’s consciousness penetrates the spiritual eye, into the three realms epitomized therein, he experiences successively the following states: superconsciousness or the ever new joy of soul realization, and oneness with God as Aum (q.v.) or Holy Ghost; Christ consciousness, oneness with the universal intelligence of God in all creation; and cosmic consciousness, unity with the omnipresence of God that is beyond as well as within vibratory manifestation. See also consciousness, states of; superconsciousness; Christ Consciouness. ([Location 29421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29421)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - superconsciousness. The pure, intuitive, all-seeing, ever blissful consciousness of the soul. Sometimes used generally to refer to all the various states of samadhi (q.v.) experienced in meditation, but specifically the first state of samadhi, wherein one drops ego-consciousness and realizes his self as soul, made in the image of God. Thence follow the higher states of realization: Christ consciousness and cosmic consciousness (qq.v.). ([Location 29443](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29443)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - Vedanta. Literally, “end of the Vedas”; the philosophy stemming from the Upanishads, or latter portion of the Vedas. Shankara (eighth or early ninth century) was the chief exponent of Vedanta, which declares that God is the only reality and that creation is essentially an illusion. As man is the only creature capable of conceiving of God, man himself must be divine, and his duty therefore is to realize his true nature. ([Location 29461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=29461)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - “As enkindled flame converts firewood into ashes, so does the fire of wisdom consume to ashes all karma. Verily, nothing else in this world is as sanctifying as wisdom” ([Location 31523](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=31523)) - “Whosoever shall impart to My devotees the supreme secret knowledge, with utmost devotion to Me, shall without doubt come unto Me. Not any among men performs more priceless service to Me than he; in all the world there shall be none dearer to Me” (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita xviii:68 – 69). ([Location 31817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=31817)) - 3 Lord Krishna referred to the requisite interiorization of consciousness in these words: “When the yogi, like a tortoise withdrawing its limbs, can fully retire his senses from the objects of perception, his wisdom manifests steadiness” (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita ii:58). ([Location 32065](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=32065)) - This “Golden Rule” is basic to the spiritual teachings of the world’s religions: From the Hindu scripture Mahabharata (Anusasana Parva 113.8): “One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself. This is the essence of morality. All other activities are due to selfish desire.” From the Analects of Confucius (15.23): “Tsekung asked, ‘Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?’ Confucius replied, ‘It is the word shu—reciprocity. Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.’” From the Jewish Talmud (Shabbat 31a): “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” From the Buddhist text Tripitaka Udana-varga 5:18: “Hurt not others in ways that you would find hurtful.” And from the sayings of Prophet Mohammed (Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi): “Not one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.” (Publisher’s Note) ([Location 32154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=32154)) - Tags: [[favorite]] - “That thought with which a dying man leaves the body determines—through his long persistence in it—his next state of being” (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita viii:6). ([Location 32500](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=32500)) - Evagrius himself writes, ‘Now this apatheia has a child called agape [love of God] who keeps the door to deep knowledge of the created universe. Finally, to this knowledge succeed theology [experiential knowledge of God] and the supreme beatitude.’” ([Location 33090](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=33090)) - “The Praktikos of Evagrius begins with the listing of eight kinds of ‘evil’ or ‘passionate’ thoughts: gluttony, impurity, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia [‘the desire to give up’], vainglory, and pride. By calling them ‘thoughts,’ Evagrius is referring to an exceedingly important element in the early-Christian teaching about the emotions.…‘It is not in our power,’ Evagrius writes, ‘to determine whether we are disturbed by these thoughts, but it is up to us to decide if they are to linger within us or not and whether or not they are able to stir up our passions.’ ([Location 33101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=33101)) - “Maya or avidya can never be destroyed through intellectual conviction or analysis, but solely through attaining the interior state of nirbikalpa samadhi. The Old Testament prophets, and seers of all lands and ages, spoke from that state of consciousness.” (Publisher’s Note) ([Location 33140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=33140)) - Matthew 18:11 – 14. ([Location 33350](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=33350)) - The Lord has condescended many times, however, to manifest Himself through the incarnation of a fully liberated being who, once an ordinary human being, has become a true reflection or ‘son of God.’ God, who is almighty and can do anything, thus operates His Omniscience through the human body of an avatar. Just as the ocean of Cosmic Consciousness is aware of a soul wave manifesting on its surface, so the soul wave of an avatar is aware of the ocean of Cosmic Consciousness manifesting through its form” (God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita, commentary on iv:7 – 8). ([Location 33372](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08L83WRPL&location=33372))