Revelations of Christ by Paramhansa Yogananda

Author:Paramhansa Yogananda [Paramhansa Yogananda, Swami Kriyananda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1565892224
Publisher: Crystal Clarity Publishers
Published: 2007-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The Spinal Highway

“The sabbath was made for man,” Jesus said, “and not man for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)

Everyone knows the story: how the disciples were picking corn on the sabbath, and the Pharisees criticized them for “working” on the biblically ordained day of rest. The answer Jesus gave them has been applied, no doubt, to many different situations, for it means also that all rules are for man’s sake, primarily, and aren’t there to satisfy a more abstract demand. Probably, however, that story has seldom, if ever, been taken to its ultimate conclusion. For in truth, the whole of Christ’s teaching refers not to external, but to internal realities: not to some blessed eventual existence amid “heavenly surroundings,” but to the inner man. Above all, every rule of religion, also, is there to uplift us spiritually, and not to satisfy any demand made of us by God.

I’ve quoted the following passage before: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20,21) As I’ve also said, every religious tradition on earth (as far as I know) thinks of heaven as situated somewhere “up above,” and of hell as being “down below.” In cosmic terms, these concepts obviously don’t work, for wherever we happen to be on earth, what seems down to us is up for people on the other side, and what seems up to us is, again, down for them—who, of course, aren’t walking about upside down, as people once imagined. The realities of heaven and hell refer universally, as in the case of the Sabbath, to realities within man himself—in fact, to the directional flow of energy in his own body.

Whatever uplifts our consciousness brings us greater inner happiness. And whatever lowers our consciousness diminishes that happiness and even makes us unhappy. It is a common description of happiness to say, quite literally, “I feel uplifted,” or, “I’m flying high today.” By contrast, when we are unhappy we use expressions that describe a downward flow of energy and consciousness. People say, “I feel low,” or, “I’m feeling downcast,” or, “depressed.”

Christian truths must be understood above all, then, in relation to universal, even if still human, realities. Every true scripture is concerned much less with abstractions than with the truth as it affects man himself.

There is a book, which claims to be a scripture, that enjoyed a certain popularity when I was young, and is still read (though perhaps less widely so). Its name is The Urantia Book. The book deals with all sorts of supposed phenomena such as the various categories of angels, and gives detailed descriptions of the astral worlds. I haven’t read much of it, and perhaps am not being wholly fair. It does seem to contain fascinating stuff, perhaps especially for the sort of people who are interested in science fiction. Its subject matter is not at all the domain of genuine scripture, however. The whole

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