This is a continuation of our extracts from Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ
articles that originally appeared in East-West, Inner Culture, and Self-Realization magazines.
“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:13-17).
The original ceremony of baptism by water came from India. Baptism means immersion in water in order to cleanse or purify. Purification of the body should precede the purification of the mind. Hence, all souls who desired to begin living the spiritual life had to purify their bodies. “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” but baptism of the mind becomes practically meaningless. If we bathe and thus purify our bodies, we will find that our mind will temporarily become purified, but unless we change our souls’ wickedness by calmness, meditation, and constant spiritual vigilance, we will remain the same old devils with bad habits in spite of the temporary purifying effect of the water on our bodies.
To illustrate this metaphorically, a Hindu saint said to his would-be disciple: “Son, it is necessary to bathe in the Ganges to purify the mind from sin. The sins will leave you temporarily while you bathe in the holy waters, but they will wait for you in the trees skirting the Ganges, and as soon as you come out of the sacred influence of the holy water, they will again jump on you.”
It is good to immerse initiates in water, but the ceremony of immersion without following up with continued spiritual lessons in meditation and God-contact is of little value. Yet it is evident that Jesus, although He was so evolved, did not fail to go into the water.
Another important matter in connection with the baptism of Jesus Christ is that He insisted on being baptized by John, who in self-realization was far inferior to Him. John said he was not worthy to unloose the lachet of the shoes of Jesus, and that he baptized only with water, while Jesus baptized with Spirit. Alas, modern baptism has become baptism by water only, rather than showing the real way of baptizing one’s self with Spirit and ultimate wisdom by meditation. Feeling his spiritual inferiority, John wondered why Jesus wanted to be baptized with water. The action of Jesus distinctly demonstrated the ancient, pre-Christian Hindu custom and the real spiritual way which every God-aspirant should follow.
The method of finding God is different from the methods demanded by most colleges for any kind of specific training. Even in medical training, the student never learns if he roams from college to college, joining different medical institutions, and listening to a few lectures, but without going through intensive training in materia medica, physiology, dissection, and other such studies in one college. Also, it is true that a student cannot join all the universities at the same time.
A student should follow one course in one college until he receives a certificate that he has completed certain studies. But alas, in spiritual denominations even the loyalty the usual intellectual college expects is not given to the denomination by the aspirant, nor is the time necessary for self-realization given to the practice of the spiritual lessons. Such people continue taking lessons from any new, good, bad, or indifferent teachers who happen to come to town and advertise. I say that people should discriminate between the so-called teacher, who uses religion only to make money or just as living, and the real teacher who may use business methods in his religion in order to serve his brethren with real spirituality.
It is extremely necessary to remember that in the beginning it is wise to compare many spiritual paths and teachers. But when the real teaching is found that is best for us as individuals (for there are many paths that are “the right one” for many different people), then the restless searching must cease. The thirsty one should not keep seeking wells, but should go to the best well and daily drink its life-giving waters. That is why in the beginning we seek many until we find the right path for us, and then remain loyal to it through death and eternity, until final emancipation.
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