And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God (Luke 4:1-4).

Consciousness of Jesus Expanded From His Body to All Parts of the Material Cosmic Vibration

The consciousness of Jesus, the man, felt the limitation of the body and began to vibrate with the spirit-like, holy, intelligent, Cosmic vibration. This was the first attempt of the soul of Jesus to rise above His bodily attachment of incarnations. Jesus had been successful in transferring His consciousness from the circumference of the body to the boundary of all finite creation.

The whole cosmos can be divided in halves. One portion is pervaded by the transcendental God, the Father, Who is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss, and beyond all the categories of time, space, and vibration. The other portion is the vibratory region of space and time which contains in its sphere all the planetary universes, milky way, stars, and our little family of solar systems. The earth is a part of the solar system, and the body of Jesus was a small speck of the earth. Jesus, the man, had His consciousness caged in the little body, a speck of earth space.

By Love and Meditation Jesus Extended His Consciousness

Jesus, the Christ Consciousness, by the expanding power of love and the spreading power of meditation, had been able to extend His consciousness to the region of all vibratory space. This is what is meant by Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not possessed by a Spirit or a disembodied soul, as is sometimes thought, but His consciousness was expanded fully from the region of the body vibration to the region of all vibration. Jesus, the man, a speck of the earth, became Jesus, the Christ, with His consciousness pervading all finite vibration.

The Exit of Buried Spirit From Matter

Omnipresent Spirit becomes buried in matter and vibration, just as the oil remains hidden in the olive, and can be released again only through love and meditation.

When the olive is squeezed, tiny drops of oil appear on its surface, so the individual spirit tries to squeeze its way out of matter as the souls of gems, beautiful minerals, plants, men, and supermen. The spirit expresses itself as beauty, magnetic and chemical power in gems, as beauty and life in plants, as beauty, power, life, motion and consciousness in animals, as comprehension and expanding power in man, and again returns to omnipresence in the superman.

The gem expresses a part of spirit, the plant expresses a little more. The animal expresses spirit more than the plant, for the animal can cover a greater portion of space by bodily movements. Man, by his self-consciousness, can comprehend the thoughts of other men and can project his mind into space and to the stars, at least by the power of imagination.

In Superman Spirit Regains Its Omnipresence

The superman can expand the life and energy within his body into all space, thus actually feeling the presence of all universes and every atom of the earth in his own consciousness. In the superman the lost omnipresence of spirit is bound in the soul by forgetfulness. To understand exactly what Jesus meant by being filled with the Holy Spirit, through right meditation one must scientifically and metaphysically explode superstition and understand the true significance of His statements. That is why Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29, 31).

Jesus Knew Not Only Telepathically But Through Omnipresent Feeling

Jesus, like the great yogis of India, not only could foretell the actions of people and the course of events from a distance through telepathic vibrations of thought, but He also knew about all the happenings on the earth surface or within it, or in any portion of space, in any planet or vibratory creation, through His omnipresent feeling. That is why Jesus foretold or felt the death of Lazarus in His own omnipresent Christ Consciousness of omnipresence. (“These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” John 11:11-14).)

A little ant’s consciousness is limited by its little body. An elephant’s consciousness is extended all over his big body. His consciousness is aware in all parts of his own body, so that ten people touching ten different parts of his body would awaken simultaneous awareness in him. Likewise, Christ Consciousness is extended to the boundaries of all vibratory regions. Jesus, the man’s consciousness, was at first extended only to the boundaries of His body.

The body of man may not be as large as that of an elephant, but his consciousness, unlike the elephant’s, can cover the territories of stars in imagination. Christ, a Superman-God, by constantly meditating upon the finitely omnipresent vibrating ocean sound, or Holy Spirit vibration, felt His consciousness filled in every particle of space.

Omnipresent Consciousness of Jesus

First: Jesus, the man’s consciousness, was bound by His body occupying as little speck of vibratory region on the earth. Second: By meditation and feeling Cosmic Vibration in every particle of vibratory space, Jesus, the man, became Jesus, the Christ. (Simply listening passively to the Cosmic Sound will not do. One must learn to actually feel the sound in plants and stars or in any portion of space at will.) In the Holy Spirit state the consciousness of Jesus had expanded from the body to all vibratory regions.

The Holy Spirit or Finitely Omnipresent State of Jesus

This Holy Spirit state is the second state of high metaphysical development. This Holy Spirit state can be attained externally by extended the feeling of love to one’s family, society, nation, all nations, all creatures, and internally by expanding consciousness through semi-subconsciousness, soul consciousness, semi-superconsciousness, semi-Christ Consciousness to Christ Consciousness present in all vibratory regions.

How All Can Attain the Holy Spirit State

A Christlike person must love all living creatures and actually feel his presence in every portion of earth or vibratory space semi-universally at the same time. He does not need to concentrate in order to know anything. He already knows all things because he feels all finite creation, stars, and all specks of space, as the living cells of his own body.

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.

On the other hand, Advaita Vedanta seems to advocate that all will essentially merge with Brahman, regardless of the path. Could you help explain your views on all this? I am feeling somewhat lost in the big city that Hinduism can be.

You are right, Hinduism is “the big city,” but that is because it is all-embracing. Every possible truth and view of that truth was long ago set forth by the sages of India. However in contemporary India we can find a lot of errant nonsense, for some parts of the big city have become slums and others are really outside the city limits even if they appear to be inside.

The truth as set forth in the upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita is the same: the goal of the individual is to unite with Brahman the Absolute. Then, like Brahman they can do/be whatever they like. Just as Brahman is both with and without qualities and both with and without form, so they can be. To say that one is superior or more ultimate than the other is to miss the point: Brahman is beyond such distinctions, for Brahman is absolutely ONE. In fact, Brahman transcends anything that can be said about It. The wise seek the Goal and leave the talk to others. As they say in the American South: “The empty wagon rattles the most.”

The upanishads and Gita affirm the eternal, divine nature of the atman-self. It, too, is part of Brahman. This perspective is essential to right understanding of any philosophical point.

You mention both the personal, and impersonal aspects of God in an article. You say that since Brahman can manifest as the transient universe, then obviously he can manifest as a deity (according to the particular devotee) as well. I certainly agree with you. My only thing is, the existence of the personal god in that way seems dependent upon an individual to perceive and need such a thing.

Again, remember that Brahman and the jiva are really one and inseparable and in a sense interdependent. Consequently as the jiva moves toward the Goal, whatever it needs will come to it or arise in its consciousness.

Are paths like bhakti and the impersonal advaitic path of yoga and meditation, equal? Do they all lead to the same thing?

Certainly, because there is only the One to realize. The Bhagavad Gita affirms this unequivocally.

Are a personal god and the impersonal brahman on the same level, or is one more ultimate than the other?

There is only The One. Our distinctions rise from our limited, unenlightened consciousness.

“Therefore, become a yogi” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46).

More Hidden Gems:

• A Practical Approach to Solving Meditation Problems
• Escaping the Forest of Delusion
• Why Jesus Was Tempted by the Devil: the Cosmic Struggle

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No. It is much more sophisticated than that. It is also pretty technical, but there is no avoiding that.

“Yoga is the suppression of the modifications of the chitta,” is the beginning statement of the Yoga Sutras as well as being Patanjali’s definition of yoga. Meditation establishes our consciousness in the true self and renders the chitta (mental energy, mind substance) free from outer-caused modifications or vrittis (waves). We should look at this further.

“To the purusha the chitta is the sole object in the form of its modifications. And chitta with its modifications [vrittis] inhibited [suppressed] would no longer be an object,” according to Shankara. The spirit, whose nature is consciousness alone, experiences the modifications of the mind (chitta) and mistakenly identifies with them. Though it seems to see many things, the only thing it ever really does see is the chitta as it dances before it in the form of ever-changing waves (vrittis). It is this objective consciousness that is the root of bondage–actually is the state of bondage.

For Vyasa comments on Sutra 4:22: “Though unmoving and unchanging, the purusha-experiencer has as it were entered into the changing object [of the chitta and its many forms or objects] and conformed itself to its function” by false identification with it. Shankara, considering the same sutra, says: “A wave in the mind, by merely arising, becomes an object for the purusha,…[although] its true nature is pure awareness.” Therefore, over-simple as it may seem, it is the removal of such objective consciousness that is liberation. And meditation is the direct means to remove such a binding consciousness.

By the resulting direct experience of our spirit-self, “ignorance comes to an end, and when that ceases there are none of the taints. With no taints, there is no karma-fruition. In that state the gunas have finished with their involvement and no longer arise before the purusha as perceived objects. That is the liberation of the spirit when the spirit stands alone in its true nature as pure light. So it is.” This is the conclusion of Vyasa.

More on the Yoga and the Mind:

• Meditation Benefits the Brain: 4 Scientific Studies
• 7 Ways to Purify the Mind
• Types of Superconsciousness

Satan can work as wrong subjective consciousness in man, or he can become the objective evil in Nature. Many people think this conception of Satan teaches duality and not the conception of one God, Who alone exists in the Cosmos. This is not true. In essence, in reality, there is nothing but Spirit, the only substance in existence, the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss.

As the ocean, when it is calm, can exist without the storm and the waves, so the Spirit, by withdrawing all waves of manifestation, can exist as the only One Goodness, as the only One Reality, but when the ocean is in movement we must acknowledge a second force, the storm, which divides the one ocean into many struggling, mutually destructive, big and small waves.

God, in creating the cosmos, has to use the independent Cosmic force of Satan’s delusion to produce in us the delusion of finite substances. As the waves do not change or hurt the ocean, in spite of the fact that big waves are destructive to small waves, so God, manifesting as finite imperfect waves of creation, is not affected or changed in essence, although finite objects are perpetually colliding and destroying one another. After all, the evil of delusion exists only in the form, not in the essence of the Spirit. As long as there is Creation, so long will there be the conception of imperfection, for the formal delusion which produces in the infinite substance the consciousness of finite phenomena is born of Cosmic delusion.

Man Must Attain Complete Understanding

Spirit is perceived as the only Reality, the only eternal substance existing, when one goes into deep oneness with Spirit and sees the ocean of Spirit without the waves of Creation. After attaining this realization, one is justified in saying that there is neither subjective nor objective Satan, but only ever-new, ever-joyous Spirit. However, as long as Creation only is perceived, one has to acknowledge the appearance of duality. God and Satan are facts, even if the latter exists only in delusion and not in reality. If you are dreaming and you hit your head against a dream wall, you will have a dream pain. While dreaming, you cannot deny the resultant pain of the collision of a dream head with a dream-conceived wall. In the same way, we are dreaming the delusion of the universe and cannot say that Satan or evil, or pain, disease, and matter do not exist. One who has wakened up in Cosmic Consciousness and forgotten the dream of Cosmic Delusion may say: “Ah, nothing exists but pure eternal goodness–one Spirit.”

While Jesus was striving to reach the final state of highest wisdom, the accumulated subjective and objective evil, born of delusive habits of incarnations, through memory of short-lived happiness born of contact with temporal finite things, began to tempt him and try to dissuade him from God.

Jesus did not deny this evil. He recognized it and destroyed its binding force by the sword of wisdom, saying: “Get thee behind me, Satan,” which means: “Let delusion be left behind my soul racing toward the Spirit.” Do not deny subjective or objective evil while you are in delusion, but watch the destructive patterns of evil everywhere as temptation within you and as imperfection and strife in Nature.

Rally your patterns of goodness in your conscience and reason, and in the presence of God, as beauty in all Nature. Strengthen your consciousness of goodness, and in its light drive away the darkness of evil. After successfully doing this say: “Nothing exists but the goodness of God.”

To the ordinary man, Satan appears as subjective ideas subtly alluring him through prenatal and postnatal bad habits. To the highly advanced, Satan takes objective form and uses vibratory voices in his last attempt to dissuade the Godward fleeing master who tries to remain completely beyond the net of satanic delusion.

Thus it was that when Satan saw Jesus nearing complete emancipation in God, he took an objective shape, talked to Him, and promised Him the temporal happiness which all his evil patterns of life could afford if Jesus would only forsake God. In the wilderness, when Jesus was enjoying the Divine Bliss contact of God, Satan used the wild beasts of passion, greed of possession, and so forth, to lure Him away from the complete attainment of Divine understanding.

If Jesus had been God on earth, He could not have been tempted, and would not have shown signs of mental struggle, as He did when He said: “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done.” He also said: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Even after His crucifixion, in the astral state, Jesus had to purify Himself of all vestiges of delusion. That is why He said to Mary, to whom He first appeared: “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” Jesus was freeing Himself from all delusion, and when that was finished He attained complete self-mastery and could materialize His body at will and thus appear for forty days to His disciples.

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 Hidden Gems:

• The 5 Great Causes of the Miseries in Life
• Swami Sivananda on Hindu Dharma
• What is Real Baptism?
• Key Concepts in Yoga: Raga and Dwesha
• Origin and Return–Sparks and the Fire

Certainly Yadava Krishna was a historical person as was Arjuna, and they were involved in the Mahabharata war–also a historical reality. But it is stretching it to believe that Krishna and Arjuna spoke to each other in poetic meter and that the several hundred verses of the Gita are a continuous conversation just before the battle.

We can be sure that Krishna spoke to Arjuna regarding the war and his obligations in relation to it, but it seems a bit silly to think that at that time he discoursed at length on such subjects as diet being a reflection of the predominant guna of a person, the constituents of Maya/Prakriti, and other technicalities of the sankhya philosophy.

Someone once remarked to Paramhansa Nityananda of Ganeshpuri: “In the Gita Krishna said…,” and Nityananda interrupted him, saying: “No. Vyasa said that Krishna said….” Although the Mahabharata war actually took place, Vyasa used it as a symbol of the battle that faces all serious sadhakas, and Krishna and Arjuna are symbols of the internal dialogue that takes place between the higher and lower “selves” of the individual.

The Bhagavad Gita is the supreme scripture; none are equal to it. Even the upanishads that are extensively cited in the Gita are not its equal, because they are only philosophical and the Gita is the perfect synthesis of philosophy, practical dharmic life, and yoga.

The Gita should be the daily study of the aspirant to liberation, because it not only presents the principles of truth, it also reveals the attitude, the entire psychology, of the person who is going to attain liberation. Many of the deluded and fraudulent yogis, masters, and avatars that abound in India and throughout the yoga world would not succeed if people looked at them with the perspective of the Gita on what is the real nature of enlightenment.

The rajor’s-edge path to the Supreme is extremely difficult to traverse because of the many ways in which our clouded and deluded mind can lead us astray or spoil our needed focus. The Gita alone keeps correcting us and holding us on the right path–provided that we do not approach it with preconceived, sectarian ideas.

There are two views on avatars:

1. That the Absolute manifests a body through Its yogamaya power and only appears to be born and live as a human being and eventually die.
2. A totally liberated jiva has attained such perfect union with Brahman that all differences (but not distinctions) have been erased between its consciousness and that of Brahman. When such a one is born–not by karmic compulsion but through its liberated will–practically speaking that jiva is an avatar. And since Krishna says in the Gita (9:15): “The countless god are only my million faces,” when a liberated being is seen to predominately reflect the traits of a “deity” he is often said to be an avatar of that god. But that should be understood psychologically, not literally.

Fortunately, authentic Sanatana Dharma is not dogmatic, so everyone is free to decide which of these two views they feel is correct. Since the real question is “Who am I?” it is a waste of time to go round and round as to who Krishna or anyone else might be.

Further Reading:

• The Bhagavad Gita—The Book of Life (An Introduction to the Gita)
• A Practical Suggestion on Studying the Gita
• The Song of God: Swami Prabhavananda’s Translation of the Bhagavad Gita

The following is a commentary on the words of Jesus from the 22nd chapter of the Aquarian Gospel, when Jesus as a boy first went to India.

“In all the world there are two things; the one is truth; the other falsehood is; and truth is that which is, and falsehood that which seems to be.”

Books upon books have been written on this subject. Life is like a motion picture. When the light shines on the screen we see colors, forms, and motion. People are born, live, and die right before our gaze. But they do not. Everything we see is only a modification of the single beam of light coming from the projector. But it passes through the film and overlays the screen as all we behold. When the movie is over the light is turned off and only the blank screen remains–unchanged. So God is the reality that underlies all illusion projected by our mind onto the screen of our awareness or by the cosmic will of God upon Himself. God is the great Magician, the great Illusionist–and we are little apprentices in magic and illusion.

No one denounces motion pictures as lies, false though they be. Why? Because they are not meant to deceive anyone. Everyone in the theater knows that only the screen is there. We, too, know this deep within, but we have blocked it out of our consciousness for time out of mind. The illusion is not evil–it is just illusion. And it has a purpose. Life is an educational training film if we will observe it and learn as we should. All about us is a mere appearance, but an appearance with an intelligent purpose which we must learn and benefit from. Becoming able to see through the illusion to the reality behind it is one of its major purposes.

Truth

“Now truth is aught, and has no cause, and yet it is the cause of everything.”

Usually we think of “aught” as meaning “anything” in an intentionally vague sense. But it also means one. When I was a child, older people sometimes spoke of the year 1917 as “nineteen aught and seven.” So Jesus is saying that God is the One that is the Cause of the Many (everything). Yet, God has no cause whatsoever, but is Self-existent. If we look to the depths of anything we will discover God as its source. Even evil? Yes, for evil is not an entity in itself but a state of the distortion of good. All things do originate in God and return to God whether that is readily perceptible or not.

Falsehood

“Falsehood is naught, and yet it is the manifest of aught.”

This affirms what I have just written, but is even broader. All that (at least in appearance) is not God is Zero. That is, it has no self-existence, but is only a modification of That Which Is. Why does Jesus call it falsehood? Because we see it falsely. If we “see true” we will see the True. Jesus is telling us that the world is real and true because it emanates from God; but our interpretation is false, so to us it is Falsehood. But only in our own minds. If we see with the Divine Eye it will be seen as a revelation of Truth. So we should not reflexively turn away or push away anything, but try to see its true nature. Then we may turn or push away, but with a right understanding. The Bhagavad Gita sums it up rightly: we should see all things in God and God in all things.

• Read the section of the Aquarian Gospel from which these verses are taken.
• Read more in the full Commentary on these verses of the Aquarian Gospel.