The Atma Jyoti Blog

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.

Desire for one object alone keeps your consciousness tied to that object. Love for all things, as the expression of God, keeps man’s consciousness expanded in omnipresence. So one baptized by the Holy Spirit must be unattached, enjoying good things only with the joyousness of God within. The spiritual aspirant will find his consciousness vibrating simultaneously in his body and in several continents. As he progresses further by deeper and longer meditation, he will find his consciousness vibrating simultaneously in his body, in the earth, the planets, the universes, and in every particle of matter.

Aum–Amen

The intelligent holy vibration, or the first manifestation of God the Father, therefore manifests as the cosmic sound of Aum, or Amen. It also manifests itself as cosmic energy in all matter. All earthly sounds and the sounds of the body–the heart, lungs, etc.–come from the cosmic sound of Aum. Aum contains all the sounds of the nine octaves perceptible to the human ear, as well as all cosmic sounds, low or high, which cannot be registered in the human ear.

So also, all forms of earthly lights–coal light, gas light, electric light, astral light–come from cosmic energy. Cosmic sound manifests as cosmic energy and vice versa. This cosmic sound manifests as the astral sounds of harps, bells, etc. (microcosmic cosmic sounds) in the astral body of man. So also this cosmic energy exists as the reflected, luminous, or astral body of man. The physical body is condensed cosmic energy. The astral body is also condensed cosmic energy. The physical body has two eyes–positive and negative–due to the law of relativity. The astral body has only one eye, which is variously named as the spiritual eye, the single eye (the Christian Bible), the third eye (the Hindu Scriptures), the star of the east, the star of wisdom, the dove descending from heaven, the inner eye, the intuitive eye, Shiva’s eye, the star through which the wise men saw, etc., etc.

During the baptism by the Holy Spirit, as perceived by Jesus Christ, He perceived it as a cosmic sound (or “heavens opened”), and the spiritual eye as the dove. The macrocosmic cosmic energy microcosmically manifests in the human body as the specific reflected life energy or the astral body. The spiritual or astral eye is the eye of the astral body. The astral eye is the individualized cosmic energy in the human body.

So Jesus, during His baptism, saw the cosmic energy manifested in bodily shape (or materialized out of the ether) as the telescopic spiritual astral eye. And out of that spiritual eye representing the cosmic energy came a voice–intelligent, all-creative, cosmic sound–saying (or vibrating) in intelligible voice (for all language comes from the Holy Spirit), “Thou art my Son [or My manifestation]; I am glad thou hast risen [lifted Thy consciousness from matter], and tuned in with My Omnipresence.”

All material human beings are prodigal sons who have left the home of Omnipresent Holy Spirit and have identified themselves with the infinitely smaller territory of the human body. This Holy Spirit is the Great Comforter. (See John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7.) Being guided by the universal reflected God-Consciousness, it contains the all-coveted bliss of God. One filled with this Holy Spirit, or Holy Vibration, can through inspiration talk with the diverse tongues of men, animals, and atoms. Since all languages are productions of the Holy Spirit, such a man can understand or utter all languages, not only of men, but also of all animals and all atoms too. Holy Spirit, Aum of the Hindus, the Jewish and Mohammedan Amin, the Christian Amen, Voice of Many Waters, and the Word are the same thing. (See Ezekiel 43:2; Revelation 1:15; 14:2; 19:6.) Aum is called the word because the word signifies cosmic intelligent vibratory sound which is the origin of all sounds and languages. This intelligent cosmic vibration or word is the first manifestation of God in creation.

On the day of Pentecost the disciples were filled with the new wine of joy coming from the touch of Aum, or the comforting Holy Vibration, and they could talk “in divers tongues” (See Acts 2:4). Such were some of the experiences of Jesus after His baptism by the Holy Spirit; and such can be the experience of students now if they learn the right way of meditation and practice it constantly and continually in real life as the years roll by.

Visit Amazon to purchase your copy of The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You (2 Volume Set) for continuous study.

More from Paramhansa Yogananda:

• Yogananda’s 30 Affirmations for April
• Why Weep for the Dead?
• Immortality vs. Death