At the bottom of this outrageous aggrandizement on the psychological and material levels is a profound sense of insecurity and discontentment–and often self-loathing–on the part of the super-guru. I have had experience of this firsthand when visiting their ashrams and conversing with them. The pathology is very evident. Let me give a single example.

A personal experience

Once I was the guest of a super-guru after having spent several days at a yoga retreat sponsored by his organization. I had spoken to the retreatants several times during those days, and was being rewarded by being invited into the August Presence. (I had already been asked to sign a legal document stating that I would not be asking the institution for money in the future as payment for my speaking. I had refused to sign–and never asked them for money.)

As we sat at the table, being served by anxious, hushed, and devoted “gopis,” Super-G began to tell me about the well-known rock groups that had asked him to come speak during their concerts both inside and outside the United States. Since I disliked all popular music (especially rock music), and being aware of the negative character of the groups he was naming, I was listening with a mixture of amazement and disgust. And then I got the idea: he was trying to make me jealous! Did he really think that, having lived with great masters in India and having received the grace of so many other great saints, I would be impressed by a listing of these aberrant drug-addicted pandemonium peddlers?

More was to come. Since I did not swoon at the listing of the rock groupies, he passed on to speaking tours. He had been invited to speak in the Soviet Union! And also in a host of other gruesome places where there could not possibly be genuine spiritual interest. This list was peppered with the names of celebrities who would either be sponsoring or accompanying him.

That left me unaffected, so he moved on to the subject of living accommodations. First I got a recounting of what centers of his organization were engaged in providing luxurious apartments and houses for him, even stocking a complete set of his tailor-made silk clothes so he would never need to travel around the country with luggage. I dislike travel and being away from our ashram, so that moved me not.

Finally he resorted to real estate. First of all, a road for his exclusive use was being made into a local forest where some disciples had managed to purchase a large tract of land so he could be totally isolated. (No matter how “loving” and “giving” the super gurus are, they like to have inaccessible retreats away from their disciples, some of them–usually the Americans–even doing some kind of “early retirement” so they will not have to have contact with their adoring devotees. Some of them claim to need solitude so they can “write,” though little or nothing is ever published. However one super-guru emerged every week from his state of retreat to travel some hours to a major vacation-playground to take saxophone lessons from a well-known jazz musician.)

After the road was put in, a renowned architect was going to come and study the land and design a house specifically to fit in with the landscape and (of course) the ecology of the forest. Then the house would be built by “the devotees”–or at least by their money.

He had come to the end of the line. I was not impressed. I was appalled. He was miffed. I was glad to get out of there to never return.

The contrast of the truly holy

Fortunately I had many memories of simple, even barren, rooms in which I had sat with great saints in India, rooms where they stayed in joyful contentment, living the simplest of lives. Before going to India I had seen the two tiny rooms in which Paramhansa Yogananda, head of a world-wide spiritual organization, had lived for over a quarter of a century, as well as the simple little kitchen where he had so often cooked for his beloved students.

“Contented in the Self by the Self, then he is said to be one whose wisdom is steady. (Bhagavad Gita 2:55)” I had seen Krishna’s words verified in the lives of the true yogis.

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The following verses from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad alone in all the upanishads describe to some degree the process of reincarnation.

Dreaming and waking

“Yajnavalkya said: ‘The Self, having in dreams enjoyed the pleasures of sense, gone hither and thither, experienced good and evil, hastens back to the state of waking from which he started.’

“‘As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass at death from this life to the next. When a man is about to die, the subtle body, mounted by the intelligent Self, groans–as a heavily laden cart groans under its burden.’

“‘When his body becomes thin through old age or disease, the dying man separates himself from his limbs, even as a mango or a fig or a banyan fruit separates itself from its stalk, and by the same way that he came he hastens to his new abode, and there assumes another body, in which to begin a new life.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:3:33-36)

Passing from life to life is only a shifting in a dream. When the stored-up life force (a form of karma) for a life is running out, just as the charge in a battery is expended and fails, so do the physical and grosser pranic bodies. And, just as the ripe fruit falls from the tree, so the subtle body separates itself from the material body and begins its process toward another earthly birth in a new body. In between births, the individual spends time in the astral regions, sometimes just wandering and frittering his time away, and sometimes in learning and evolving so his next life will be markedly better–and wiser–than the previous one. This time spent in this intermediate state can be anything from a matter of hours to centuries and even thousands of years. This is precisely determined by karma.

(By the way, it is nonsense to say that unevolved people reincarnate quickly and evolved people only come back in thousands of years. Both ends of the spectrum are similar: very unevolved beings reincarnate very fast, and so do those that are highly evolved, for they are getting ready to graduate and are “cramming” for the final test.)

Leaving the body

“‘When his body grows weak and he becomes apparently unconscious, the dying man gathers his senses about him and completely withdrawing their powers descends into his heart. No more does he see form or color without.

“‘He neither sees, nor smells, nor tastes. He does not speak, he does not hear. He does not think, he does not know. For all the organs, detaching themselves from his physical body, unite with his subtle body. Then the point of his heart, where the nerves join, is lighted by the light of the Self, and by that light he departs either through the eye, or through the gate of the skull, or through some other aperture of the body. When he thus departs, life departs; and when life departs, all the functions of the vital principle depart. The Self remains conscious, and, conscious, the dying man goes to his abode. The deeds of this life, and the impressions they leave behind, follow him.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:1,2)

• He becomes apparently unconscious.

This is important. The person may cease to perceive anything, but that is not being unconscious. We are never unconscious at any time, but we mistakenly call total absence of sensory perception unconsciousness. There is a vital point I want to mention here. The very last sense to fail is the sense of hearing. Sometimes it never fails. A lot of people give up and die because they hear the doctor say there is no hope or that they will soon be dead. So if you are around a dying, “unconscious” person please remember this. You can speak to them and help them either revive or go to higher worlds. That is why both Hindus and Buddhists read scriptures to the dying or recite mantras or sing mantras. In Pure Land Buddhism people sit by the dying and sing the mantra of Amida Buddha, continuing to do so for several hours after the person appears to be dead, knowing that sometimes they may have trouble getting out of the body or may be disoriented when they do.

YoganandaYogananda spoke of this to his students, one of whom was the famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci. So when her brother was dying she talked to him and called him back to life. When he became “conscious” he told her that he had heard doctor saying he would soon be dead, so he accepted it and began drifting away. Then he heard her voice calling to him from far off, and telling him to return. So he did! At one point he even saw Yogananda, about whom he knew virtually nothing but he recognized Yogananda when his sister showed a picture to him.

It is sometimes possible to revive a person by intoning Om in their right ear. Yogananda also recommended this.

• Then the point of his heart, where the nerves join, is lighted by the light of the Self, and by that light he departs either through the eye, or through the gate of the skull, or through some other aperture of the body.

This is the Light that so many people tell about seeing who have returned from near-death. There are many gates by which a person may leave the body, and they are all determined by the level of consciousness (bhava) in which he has habitually lived during his lifetime. (This is one of the major teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.) To leave through a center in the head is the best, and will determine what highly evolved world he will enter. Those who leave through the center at the top of the head, the Brahmarandhra, will not return to rebirth. Those who leave at lower centers in the body or spine will go to lesser worlds, and some of the lowest centers are literally gates to negative worlds we call “hells.” Some even lead to rebirth in animal forms, though this is rare.

• The Self remains conscious, and, conscious, the dying man goes to his abode. The deeds of this life, and the impressions they leave behind, follow him.

Some of low evolution simply go to sleep and only wake a little before reincarnating, and some do not even awaken until they are born. But the people to which this upanishad is addressed will certainly depart in full consciousness and will review their life and be aware of the psychic changes their previous actions have produced. And they will be aware of exactly why and how they eventually find themselves in an astral or causal realm that corresponds to those karmas and samskaras. It is all a matter of learning.

Astral birth

“‘As a leech, having reached the end of a blade of grass, takes hold of another blade and draws itself to it, so the Self, having left this body behind it unconscious, takes hold of another body and draws himself to it.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:3)

Birth in the astral world is a conscious act. Only on earth or in the negative astral worlds do we mistakenly think that we are helpless and that we are not in charge. That is why the simile of a leech is used, and why the Sanskrit text literally says that we make another body for ourselves. And that happens in earthly rebirth, too. We choose where to whom we will be born, and we enter the womb of our chosen mother and, taking the material provided by both parents, make our next body-habitation in accordance with our karma and samskara–this is how powerful and intelligent we all are! Yogananda said in his Gita commentary that the individual consciously guides the growth of his body in the womb. (That was the first sentence of Yogananda’s teaching that I read, sitting in a public library in the fall of 1960.)

“‘As a goldsmith, taking an old gold ornament, molds it into another, newer and more beautiful, so the Self, having given up the body and left it unconscious, takes on a newer and better form, either that of the fathers, or that of the celestial singers, or that of the gods, or that of other beings, heavenly or earthly.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:4)

In the higher worlds, the individual creates a body that is appropriate to the world in which he shall be living until he takes rebirth–also voluntarily. This experience will train him for even more efficiently making his body when he returns to earth.

Sometimes in the subtle worlds an individual takes on a body that is higher than his present evolutionary status and practices living on that level. This prepares him for a higher level on earth, as well. This is mentioned as taking place even for animals in the forty-third chapter of Yogananda’s autobiography, “The Resurrection of Sri Yutkeswar.”

Misidentification

“‘The Self is verily Brahman. Through ignorance it identifies itself with what is alien to it, and appears to consist of intellect, understanding, life, sight, hearing, earth, water, air, ether, fire, desire and the absence of desire, anger and the absence of anger, righteousness and the absence of righteousness. It appears to be all things–now one, now another.

“‘As a man acts, so does he become. A man of good deeds becomes good, a man of evil deeds becomes evil. A man becomes pure through pure deeds, impure through impure deeds.

“‘As a man’s desire is, so is his destiny. For as his desire is, so is his will; as his will is, so is his deed; and as his deed is, so is his reward, whether good or bad.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:5)

Lest in all this we forget that it is really the dream-life of the individual spirit, Yajnavalkya reminds Janaka of this. For in all these changes, the Self is unchanging, in all these births and deaths the Self remains birthless and deathless. The fact that we so easily forget this truth is evidence of how good we are at fooling ourselves! We are always masters of the situation.

Desire

“‘A man acts according to the desires to which he clings. After death he goes to the next world bearing in his mind the subtle impressions of his deeds; and after reaping there the harvest of his deeds, he returns again to this world of action. Thus he who has desires continues subject to rebirth.

“‘But he in whom desire is stilled suffers no rebirth. After death, having attained to the highest, desiring only the Self, he goes to no other world. Realizing Brahman, he becomes Brahman.’”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:6)

It is ignorance that causes our mistaken identification, but the power behind rebirth is desire. Once we cut off desire, rebirth is finished. Desireless, we transcend all worlds and know ourselves as Eternal Brahman.

“‘When all the desires which once entered into his heart have been driven out by divine knowledge, the mortal, attaining to Brahman, becomes immortal.

““As the slough of a snake lies cast off on an anthill, so lies the body of a man at death; while he, freed from the body, becomes one with the immortal spirit, Brahman, the Light Eternal.’
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:7)

All glory to those that have freed themselves by knowing their Self!

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• The Authentic Christian View on Reincarnation
• Proofs of Reincarnation

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“Let your mother be a god to you; let your father be a god to you; let your teacher be a god to you; let your guest also be a god to you. Do only such actions as are blameless. Always show reverence to the great.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 1:11:2)

First, the word translated “god” is deva. Here is the definition given in A Brief Sanskrit Glossary: “Deva: ‘A shining one,’ a god–greater or lesser in the evolutionary hierarchy; a semi-divine or celestial being with great powers, and therefore a ‘god.’ Sometimes called a demi-god. Devas are the demigods presiding over various powers of material and psychic nature.” As you see, deva in no ways means God–Ishwara, Bhagavan, or Brahman. It is indefensible to cite this verse in an attempt to coerce innocent people into worshipping some guru as God.

The meaning is as clear as it is simple. We should revere our mother, father, teacher (acharya), and even our guests as citizens of higher worlds. We need not be blind to their defects, for the gods have defects, also–otherwise they would be free souls and not gods at all. We should do our best to accommodate these earthly gods and to care for them with all love and solicitude. Here, too, exaggeration is not intended. If our parents tell us to commit wrong or damage or neglect our spiritual life we should ignore it, but as much as is sensible we should defer to them in a reasonable manner. This is dharma.

There are many who “do good” grudgingly as though taking bitter medicine, or with a kind of weary “after all it’s my duty” attitude. Many treat the objects of their “care” or charity in a rude and contemptuous manner or adopt the attitude of an exasperated adult toward a worrisome or recalcitrant child. This is not dharma. So the upanishad continues:

“Whatever you give to others, give with love and respect. Gifts must be given in abundance, with joy, humility, and compassion.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 1:11:3)

This is a high ideal, but I have seen it done in both America and India by Christians, Buddhists, and Hindus. All it requires is a pure heart free from ego and selfishness. One time In Varanasi I saw two people feeding hundreds of poor people. At the end of the meal, each person was given money and clothing. As they left, they walked by the benefactors who saluted each one with folded hands, saying “Thank you” to each of them. They understood: by letting them give in charity, those poor people were enabling them to create good karma for the future.

Victor Zammit

“Of the research I have done over the years, the most impressive hypnotherapist I have come across in showing how past life regression is linked with reincarnation is psychologist and former skeptic Peter Ramster from Sydney, Australia.

The following information is taken from Peter Ramster’s very important book, In Search of Lives Past (1990) and from a speech he gave to the Australian Hypnotherapists ninth National Convention at the Sydney Sheraton Wentworth Hotel on the 27th March, 1994 and from the films he made on reincarnation.

In 1983 he produced a stunning television documentary in which four women from Sydney, who had never been out of Australia, gave details under hypnosis of their past lives. Then, accompanied by television cameras and independent witnesses, they were taken to the other side of the world.

One of the subjects involved was Gwen MacDonald, a staunch skeptic before her regression. She remembered a life in Somerset between 1765-82. Many facts about her life in Somerset which would be impossible to get out of a book were confirmed in front of witnesses when she was taken there:

• when taken blindfolded to the area in Somerset she knew her way around perfectly although she had never been out of Australia
• she was able to correctly point out in three directions the location of villages she had known
• she was able to direct the film crew as to the best ways to go far better than the maps
• she knew the location of a waterfall and the place where stepping stones had been. The locals confirmed that the stepping stones had been removed about 40 years before
• she pointed out an intersection where she claimed that there had been five houses. Enquiries proved that this was correct and that the houses had been torn down 30 years before and that one of the houses had been a ‘cider house’ as she claimed
• she knew correctly names of villages as they were 200 years ago even though on modern maps they do not exist or their names have been changed
• the people she claimed that she knew were found to have existed?one was listed in the records of the regiment she claimed he belonged to
• she knew in detail of local legends which were confirmed by Somerset historians
• she used correctly obscure obsolete west country words no longer in use, no longer even in dictionaries, words like ‘tallet’ meaning a loft
• she knew that the local people called Glastonbury Abbey ‘St Michaels’—a fact that was only proved by reading an obscure 200 year old history book not available in Australia
• she was able to correctly describe the way a group of Druids filed up Glastonbury Hill in a spiral for their spring ritual, a fact unknown to most university historians
• she knew that there were two pyramids in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey which have long since disappeared
• she correctly described in Sydney carvings that were found in an obscure old house 20 feet from a stream, in the middle of five houses about one and a half miles from Glastonbury Abbey
• she had been able to draw in detail in Sydney the interior of her Glastonbury house which was found to be totally correct
• she described an inn that was on the way to the house. It was found to be there
• she was able to lead the team direct to the house which is now a chicken shed. No-one knew what was on the floor until it was cleaned. However on the floor they found the stone that she had drawn in Sydney
• the locals would come in every night to quiz her on local history?she knew the answers to all the questions they were asking such as the local problem which was a big bog—cattle were being lost there.

Cynthia Henderson, another subject of Peter Ramster, remembered a life during the French Revolution. When under trance she:

• spoke in French without any trace of an accent
• understood and answered questions put to her in French
• used dialect of the time
• knew the names of streets which had changed and were only discoverable on old maps.

Peter Ramster has many other documented cases of past life regression which in very clear terms constitute technical evidence for the existence of the afterlife.

Read more of Victor Zammit’s page on researches into reincarnation.

More on Reincarnation from the Atma Jyoti Blog:

• Reincarnation: Choosing Our Costumes in the Drama of Life
• The Authentic Christian View on Reincarnation

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If you have given up hope of ever being happy, cheer up. Never lose hope. Your soul, being the reflection of the ever-joyous Spirit, is, in essence, happiness itself. If you keep the eyes of your concentration closed, you cannot see the sun of happiness burning within your bosom, but no matter how tightly you close the eyes of your attention, it nevertheless remains a fact that the happiness rays are ever trying to pierce the closed doors of your mind. Open the portals of calmness and you will find a sudden burst of the bright Sun of Joy right from within yourself.

The joyous rays of the soul can be perceived if you interiorize your attention. This can be done by using the architect of your mind to enjoy the beautiful scenery of thoughts in the invisible, tangible Kingdom within you. Do not search for happiness only in beautiful clothes, clean houses, delicious dinners, and soft cushions and chairs. These will imprison your happiness behind the bars of externality or outwardness. Rather, in the airplane of your visualization, glide over the vast tracts of Fancy, beholding the limitless empire of thoughts. There behold the mountain ranges of unbroken, lofty, spiritual aspiration, for improving yourself and others.

Glide over the deep valleys of Universal Sympathy. Fly over the geysers of enthusiasm, and the Niagara Falls of perpetual wisdom, plunging down the hoary crags of your Soul’s peace. Soar over the endless river of intuitive perception, to the Kingdom of His Omnipresence. There, in His Mansion of Bliss, drink from His fountain of Whispering Wisdom, and quench the thirst of your desires. Dine with Him on the fruits of Divine love, in the Banquet Hall of Eternity. If you have made up your mind to find joy within yourself, sooner or later you will find it. Seek it now, daily, by steady, deep, and deeper meditation within, and you will surely find everlasting happiness. Make a steady effort to go within and you will find your greatest happiness there.

In that land of everlasting Christmas and Christ-Omnipresent-Festive-Consciousness you will find Jesus, Krishna, the Saints of all religions, and the great Guru preceptors, all waiting to give you a floral reception of ever-new, everlasting happiness.

Celebrating the birth of omniscient, omnipresent Christ-Consciousness in your consciousness, on the joyous Christmas festivity of your inner awakening, you will find the unbroken happiness of your dreams.

On the Christmas tree of Christ Consciousness hang your material desires, to remain forever. Give unto Christ all the gifts of love and devotion. Let Him, on the Christmas morn of your spiritual awakening, break open the gorgeous presents of your heart offerings, sealed with the tears of your golden joy and bound with the cord of your eternal fidelity to Him. He accepts only the gifts of sacred soul-dreams, and His acceptance will be His greatest gift to you, for, if He gives anything, to anyone, He gives nothing less than Himself, and in giving Himself He will make your heart big enough to hold Him, then your heart will throb with Christ in everything. Enjoy this festivity, the birth of Christ, in your mind and soul, and in every living atom.

The Unexpected Hanging

A murderer had been found guilty of a particularly heinous crime. The judge sentencing the murderer decides that death is too good for him; he wants to make him suffer. He passes his sentence, “You will be taken from this place, and hanged from the neck until you are dead. Before that, though, you will suffer anguish, waiting, never knowing whether this will be the day that you will die. One morning, sometime in the next week, it will happen, but until it does you will live in fear.”

The murderer leaves the courtroom with a light heart, knowing that the sentence handed down to him cannot be carried out.

He reasons like this:

Suppose that on the seventh morning I am alive. I will know that that is the day that I am to die. But the judge said that I would not know the day that I am to die. Therefore I will not be hanged on the seventh day. The sixth day is the last day that it could be.

But in that case, if I am alive on the sixth morning then I will know that it is the sixth day on which I am to be hanged. But the judge said that I would not know the day that I am to die. Therefore I will not be hanged on the sixth day.

He continues, applying the same reasoning to the fifth day, and then to the fourth, and so on, concluding that he cannot be hanged on any day according to the judge’s instructions. The sentence handed down to him cannot be carried out.

He is hanged on the morning of the third day, much to his surprise.

More on the Mind: How to Misuse Your Power of Thought

The reaction–or non-reaction–to the miraculous depends on our consciousness. There is not just one world in which we live, but there are as many worlds as there are people living in this world. That is, each of us sees the world and experiences it uniquely, according to the condition of our mind, which is mostly determined by our state of evolution. For this reason two people can live in the same house and yet live in two different worlds.

Different states of consciousness

We say “worlds,” but what we really mean are differing states of consciousness. The world of the human being is really an interior world, since all we ever perceive are the interpretations of the mind in response to external stimuli. It is truly all in our head! In other words, it is not the condition of the body or the place where the body is, but rather the condition or placement of the individual’s consciousness. This is of course a matter of evolution, of the development of the quality and orientation or attunement of the mind.

Since this varies from person to person, there are people who live in the miraculous from day to day next door to people who experience nothing of the miraculous in their entire life (or at least do not recognize it when it occurs). My maternal grandmother stayed in her house and almost never went anywhere except to church. In my entire life I never knew her to go the few blocks to downtown. She went out of the house to work in her flower gardens, but other than that she remained in the house where she worked miracles and lived in the supernatural. Grandmother was clairvoyant, clairaudient, and possessed astounding healing powers. This she kept secret, confiding only in her two daughters about her special abilities. After their death she made me her confidant, and no one else ever knew of the wondrous world in which she continually lived.

Right across the street from her, to the south, were some typical F. Scott Fitzgerald type of wealthy people: rich, drunken, and worthless. They certainly did not live in the miraculous (unless it came out of a bottle). To the east of her lived some very intellectual and refined people, but the miraculous and the spiritual did not touch them at all. To the west of her lived one of our town crazies, who did indeed understand certain psychic principles, and whose behavior, accordingly, was looked upon as utterly loony. It indeed was loony, because her way of responding to situations was loony. But what she saw was true. Then to the north were people who moved through life like zombies

And there at the heart of it was my grandmother, in the middle of the four, talking to God, healing the sick from a distance, and even raising the dead. (Grandmother had a difficult time getting a woman she had brought back to life to promise secrecy about it.) It was all a matter of consciousness. The divine spirit was within those other people just as much as within her, but her mind was awakened to it while theirs yet slept.

Awakening to the miraculous

One of the signs of awakening consciousness is the entrance of the miraculous into the life. Yet we have to be careful, because we can become distracted by the miraculous itself and forget from whence it comes. Jesus says: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). He does not mean this in a mechanical sense–that a person will not believe and then suddenly upon seeing a miracle come to believe. Usually people encountering the miraculous do not even know what it is. Some, threatened by the intrusion of higher reality in their life, explain away the miracle or they deny it utterly. Not infrequently they destroy the manifestation of the miracle. This was the policy of Communism. Communism did not disbelieve in God and the miraculous. If they had not believed they would not have been so intent on destroying belief in God and miracles. You only aim your gun at a target you believe is real, and the Communists did the same. Many of them when pressured admitted that they believed in God, but hated Him. Their denial was itself wishful thinking–the thing they accused religion of being!

I knew a highly advanced disciple of Yogananda who had the psychic ability to find oil deposits just by flying over an area in a plane. He even found offshore oil for his home state of Michigan. Once he located twenty-seven oil wells in one day for a man. The drilling was done and all twenty-seven paid off. Do you know what that man then said to him? “Aw, there’s just got to be some trick to it.” Another man drilled in more than a dozen places, and except for one spot found oil each time. My friend had warned him that in that one spot he would have to drill at an angle rather than straight down. The man did not follow his instructions, and when that one did not succeed, he denounced my friend as a fake.

So what does Jesus mean, then, since people experience the miraculous but mostly do not believe? Obviously Jesus is not speaking to that level of person. He is speaking to someone whose consciousness is astir.

In a sense this passage of the Gospel where Jesus’ statement occurs is a parable of someone searching for inner healing. When such search is genuine and evokes a divine response, the miraculous begins to occur. Sometimes it is amazing the way the seeker’s life becomes transfigured receiving supernatural indications–some more and some less spectacular–daily. It is as though he walks upon a glorified earth. But in time the honeymoon is over and he has to get down to business–the work of his conscious evolution. For the purpose of the miracle was to lead him to discover the principles behind the miracle.

A message from the Higher Self

A miracle is not just a wondrous thing, a simple display of power. Rather, it is a message from God and the higher self. Messages from the higher worlds often take the form of the miraculous. The recipient of the miracle must then intuit the meaning of the event. For example, the multiplication of food by Jesus (Matthew 14:15-21) did not in itself matter. What mattered was the principle of the potential infinity of matter, which in turn reveals the truth that what we think is matter is really infinite consciousness–that everything is infinite spirit. And therefore everything is God. This is the message of the multiplication of food by Jesus.

Such a miracle leads to the intuiting of a principle. So when we study a genuine miracle (for there is also mere coincidence and trickery mistaken for the miraculous), we find that it is a revelation of a truth of the higher worlds, of higher life–a revelation about ourselves. A real miracle demonstrates a principle that we can thereafter work with for practical insight and objective results. We learn something practical and demonstrable from it.

This being so, the miraculous must not be seen as just a supernatural fireworks display, but rather as the writing out of eternal truths, principles of eternal life. Jesus rose from the dead to demonstrate immortality, not for people to be impressed with his uniqueness or power. He was not displaying his power and mastery in a flashy way, but showing that death is a dream, and that life is the reality.

When Jesus healed, He showed that the disease or infirmity was a dream, and that health was the truth. Jesus walked on water and changed it to wine to demonstrate that we do not understand the nature of matter, and that there are powers beyond gravity which can cancel out the “natural” laws of gravity.

Certainly all of Jesus’ miracles were done out of compassion. He alleviated suffering because of His merciful heart. But all His healings taught something. For example, Jesus said to the palsied man: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5). Then He healed him, showing that illness comes from negative karmas–sins. He was also teaching that a momentary cure is not sufficient. If we do not eliminate the past effects of negative action which produced the disease–as well as the propensity to future negativity–we will get the disease back; if not in this life, then in a future life.

Realities behind appearances

Being the teaching instruments of God, miracles should be studied to learn their meaning. God produces miracles in the world to demonstrate the truth behind the appearance. Also miracles teach us that there is a reality behind every appearance, that phenomena are just that–appearances. If we would be wise we must not let our lives be ruled by appearances, but by the reality behind them. To the ignorant appearances veil the reality. But to the wise appearances reveal the reality. Miracles, too, both veil and reveal. As the Odes of Solomon say: “Behold! the Lord is our mirror. Open [your] eyes and see them in Him.”

Read more commentaries on the teachings of Jesus in these articles:
• What Did Jesus Really Say in the Sermon on the Mount?
• The Kingdom of Heaven According to Jesus
• What Jesus Really Means by Meekness
• When Craving is a Good Thing
• Mercy and the Law of Karma
• Clean to the Core of Our Being
• The Spiritual Process of Making Peace

Keep up with new articles as they are posted. Subscribe to the Atma Jyoti Blog.

Happiness is a will-o’-the-wisp which most people follow, and which oftentimes leads them astray until they drown in the marshes of suffering. Most temporary, easily attained, so-called happiness is nothing but suffering in disguise. It may be pleasant to the palate to eat a great deal at the table, but remember that such procedure is very likely to have many unpleasant after-effects, such as acute indigestion or stomach ache, so also is it with immoderation in your natural impulses. They generally give you sense pleasure in the beginning, but ultimately they produce satiety and unhappiness.

The greatest way to create happiness for yourself is not to allow sense lures or bad habits to control you, but rather be a stern, iron-like ruler of your habits and appetites. Remember that just as you cannot satisfy your own hunger by feeding some other person, so you cannot be really happy by trying to satisfy only the over-demands of your senses.

Too much luxury, instead of producing happiness, drives it away from your mind. Do not spend all your time in finding ways and means which you think will make you happy. Be contented always, equally in your struggle for prosperity, and also in your attainment of it., You can be a King of Happiness in a tattered cottage, or you can be a tortured victim of unhappiness even if you live in a palace.

Happiness is a mental phenomenon exclusively. You must first establish it firmly within yourself, and then with an undying resolution always to be happy, go through the world seeking health, prosperity, and wisdom. Remember that to battle failure and sickness and to seek success ever with a happy attitude will bring you far, far nearer to your desired goal than if with an unhappy mind you try to gain your heart’s desire, no matter what that desire may be.

“Bread the men of the world seek after–
Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God,
And His righteousness,
And ALL THESE THINGS
Shall be added unto you.”

Read the first article in this series, Creating Your Happiness.

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