The Yoga of Jesus: Understanding the Hidden Teachings of the Gospels by Paramahansa Yogananda

Author:Paramahansa Yogananda [Yogananda, Paramahansa]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Body, Religion, Self-realization, Self-Realization Fellowship, Spirituality, Meditation, Mindfulness and Meditation, Religious, Mind and Spirit
Publisher: Self-Realization Fellowship
Published: 2016-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:19–21).

The all-pervading light of God, imbued with the universal Christ Intelligence, silently emanates divine love and wisdom to guide all beings back to the Infinite Consciousness. The soul, being a microcosm of Spirit, is an ever present light in man to lead him through discriminative intelligence and the intuitive voice of conscience; but all too often the rationalization of desireful habits and whims refuses to follow. Tempted by the Satan of cosmic delusion, man chooses actions that obliterate the light of discriminative inner guidance.

The origin of sin and its resultant physical, mental, and spiritual suffering therefore lies in the fact that the soul’s divine intelligence and discrimination are suppressed by man’s misuse of his God-given free choice. Though nonunderstanding people ascribe to God their own vengeful propensities, the “condemnation” of which Jesus spoke is not punishment meted out by a tyrannical Creator, but the results man brings on himself by his own actions, according to the law of cause and effect (karma) and the law of habit.

Succumbing to desires that keep their consciousness concentrated on and confined in the material world—the “darkness” or gross portion of cosmic creation in which the illumining Divine Presence is heavily obscured by the shadows of maya-delusion—benighted souls, humanly identified with mortal egos, repeatedly indulge their erroneous ways of living, which then become firmly entrenched in the brain as bad habits of mortal behavior.

When Jesus said that men love darkness rather than light, he was referring to the fact that material habits keep millions away from God. He did not mean that all men love darkness—only those who make no effort to resist the temptations of Satan, taking instead the easy way of rolling down the hill of bad habits and thus becoming inured to the darkness of worldly consciousness. Because they shut out the voice of Christ Consciousness whispering in their personal conscience, they shun the infinitely more tempting experience of joy to be had through the good habits urged by the guiding wisdom-light in their souls.

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