Sunday Service Reading #52

From Rays of the One Light
The Divine Ascension
(to long readings) (link to longest reading)

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, we read:

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

What is this “I,” when spoken by a master who has conquered every vestige of ego-consciousness? Therein lies the mystery of true Scriptural teaching. That “I” that is no “I”: Does it even exist? In what way is it different from the consciousness that animates other human beings?

Jesus was not saying, “Look at me. Don't look at other masters.” He was saying, rather, “Look at the divine Self that is the essence of who you are, your very Self. You are that ‘I.' No man cometh unto the divine consciousness except by first recognizing his own intrinsic divinity, hidden behind his delusive ego.”

The Bhagavad Gita, in the fourth Chapter, states:

O Son of Pritha [Arjuna], in whatever way people accept Me, in that same way do I appear to them. For all men, in some way, pursue the path to Me.

Meditate on the divine incarnations. Their lives, and the consciousness animating them, will be your stairway to the Infinite.

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Jyotish's Service on this Subject from 12-25-11

VIDEO of Asha's Service on this Subject from 12-27-09

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 12-27-09

VIDEO of Anandi's Service on this Subject from 12-28-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Anandi's Service on this Subject from 12-28-08

VIDEO of Robert Clack's (Raghu) Service on this Subject from 12-28-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Robert Clack's (Raghu) Service on this Subject from 12-28-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 12-30-07

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Jyotish's Service on this Subject from 12-31-06

Long Readings from the 3 Volume Set:
Rays of the Same Light

#52: The Divine Ascension
("The Way of the Christ: How To Find It, and How To Walk It" in the original book)

This passage is from the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, Verse 6:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Commentary

A truth is often understood more deeply if one can step back from it a little and view it from the broadest perspective. Let us, then, withdraw mentally from this oft-quoted passage, and view it in the broader context of Jesus' life and mission on earth.

How universally lovable is the image of Jesus as a baby, laid in a humble manger, adored by shepherds, angels, animals, and wise men! In that little form they beheld manifested the Divinity itself.

Artists for nearly two thousand years have devoted countless paintings to the portrayal of the Holy Family during those first days: Mary and Joseph, their eyes radiant with love and joy, gazing downward at the tiny infant. And Jesus smiling up at them with divine love and faith.

Contemplating the birth of Jesus, one feels both deep awe and deep gratitude at the thought of God's compassion in descending to earth in human form for man's salvation.

One also feels something else. Is it tenderness? solicitude? It is as though the Christ child were not only divine, but somehow human and fragile as well: a tiny baby needing its parents' loving care and protection.

A divine truth in this protective feeling makes images of the baby Jesus particularly affecting. For his birth is deeply symbolic of the birth of divine awareness within each one of us. The first stirrings of that awareness must indeed be treated with loving care and protection, as though it had the fragility of an infant. Jesus told his disciples to be ever watchful, to protect their inner awareness of God's presence lest they lose touch with it.

There is a second image that has captured the West's imagination through the ages. It is the drama of the Crucifixion. This image, too, is universally affecting. What we feel in Jesus' supreme sacrifice on the cross is very different from the tender sentiments awakened in us by contemplating his birth. We feel deep awe and gratitude still, but no longer, now, the impulse to protect. Rather, what we feel is the deep longing to be protected.

The Crucifixion makes us aware of the crosses each of us has to bear in his life, and of the need to depend totally on the saving power of grace.

This awareness, too, is based on a deep inner truth. For as our devotion grows, it no longer requires the same care and protection as it did at first, but becomes instead our teacher and guide. Its mission, rather, is to train us in the ways of absolute self-sacrifice, of unconditional love, and of perfect surrender to God.

Jesus' death on the cross offered to mankind, among other blessings, a symbol of the death of our own selfhood, of everything in us that is petty and self-seeking. The Crucifixion is a symbol of soul-freedom, attained through the death of attachment to everything of this world.

The feelings awakened by images of Jesus in the manger would remain on a level of mere sentiment, were they not directed toward devotion's true end: perfect surrender to God. And the feelings awakened by images of Jesus on the cross might only inspire fanaticism, were they not directed from the tenderness of devotion. Thus, spiritually speaking, the two images are interdependent.

In a like manner, the whole of Jesus' life may be contemplated not only from a standpoint of his individual teachings, but as a complete teaching in itself.

For the events in his life were more than occurrences in the life of an individual. From his birth to the Crucifixion, the teaching and example Jesus gave were rooted in principle, not in personality. He came to show and to exemplify "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He was the divine life, personified.

Christians have mistaken his personification of the Truth for the broader, more impersonal Truth he represented. Jesus did in fact offer people the only visible alternative most of them had to the materialism of their age. It is perfectly true, moreover, that in his spirit he was the truth that he represented. He not only taught it: He was inwardly identified with it. For he was one with God.

The mistake people commonly make is to think of his special expression of Truth as being itself absolute. Worse still, they think of him as pitting himself against other great souls who, like him, represented the same truth. Yet other great masters, too, had followed the way to its end of total surrender to the Lord.

How did the wise men recognize him as divinity incarnate? It takes greatness to behold greatness. It takes wisdom to recognize wisdom. And it takes an awareness of God's presence within, to be aware of its manifestations without.

The Truth which Jesus represented was indeed unique. It will remain so eternally, for it represents the universal path to union with God, through direct, inner communion with the Lord. Despite the diversity of outward religious forms, the path of inner, spiritual awakening is essentially one. Jesus was a very great representative of this Truth, but happily not the only one to have appeared down the ages.

To insist that the greatness of Jesus is unique is to ignore, or perhaps only to be unaware of, the lives of other masters who have matched point for point every test of greatness that might possibly be applied to Jesus. Far from lessening his stature, moreover, the lives of those masters give added force to his life and teachings, as John the Baptist gave also by his testimony of Jesus, and as the wise men gave at his birth. Not one of those masters ever contradicted the truths that he taught. And not one master after him has spoken of him otherwise than with the highest praise, and in total agreement with everything he taught.

Jesus gave his disciples this test of true faith: "And these signs shall follow them that believe," he said. "In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17,18) These signs are typical of the powers that we find expressed in the lives of all the great masters of past centuries: Krishna, Buddha, Shankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya, and on down to the great masters of our times.

Most important of all, those great souls revealed the inner qualities of a true master, even as Jesus did: omniscience, omnipresence of consciousness; absolute love, compassion, and forgiveness; freedom from sorrow and from all negative qualities such as egotism, attachment, jealousy, desire, and hate. Like Jesus, those masters sought nothing for themselves. Like Jesus, too, their only desire was to obey God's will, and to help others to find the divine truth.

Jesus was saying, then, to follow the way that he had shown, the way that he himself represented, and of which his outward life was so marvelous an expression. His purpose was not to bind people to that expression, but rather, by their attunement with it, to fulfill his highest teaching: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)

Thus, through the Holy Bible, God has spoken to mankind.

This passage is from the fourth Chapter, the eleventh Stanza:

"O son of Pritha, in whatever way people accept Me, in that same way do I appear to them. For all men, in some way, pursue the path to Me."

Commentary

This stanza, with economy and divine simplicity, throws open the window onto vast vistas of truth, showing range on range of further meanings. Such, indeed, is one of the thrills of reading the Bhagavad Gita. Many lifetimes of meditation on it surely could not plumb it to its depths.

The Gita is speaking first of people who believe in God and love Him. It then goes on to say that all other human beings, in one way or another, follow the path to God, whether they believe in Him or not. For none can live apart from Him, however much some people try to do so.

All men, moreover, are impelled in their heart of hearts toward Him. In Him awaits a fulfillment that they cannot but find, someday. For none can escape his own nature. Sooner or later all men shall have to discover who and what they really are, in their souls.

Very few people are aware of their high destiny. All, however, recognize their own dissatisfaction with the present state of affairs. They know that things ought to be better than they are. They feel that life ought to be less of a trial for them, and wish they could find it more enjoyable. Put simply, everyone wants to avoid pain and limitation, and to find happiness.

Everyone would also like to be as aware as possible of any happiness he finds. And he would like that happiness to endure; indeed, he'd like it to last forever. He may for a time give up hope of ever finding it. He may imagine that the best he can dare wish for is to reduce his suffering. Once, however, his suffering diminishes, his thoughts will turn naturally once more to the quest for happiness.

Thus were we all made. There is no one, anywhere, for whom these statements are not true, for the simple reason that all creatures were not only made by God, but exist and have their reality in His consciousness. As Jesus said, "Not a sparrow falls without His sight." Man's essential nature, and God's, are the same. And God's nature is bliss: bliss absolute, bliss ever-conscious, bliss eternal.

Divine consciousness diminishes as it filters down into human nature. In this way it resembles sunlight, which is diminished in strength as it enters the earth's atmosphere. Sunlight is diminished still further as it enters the ocean, and grows increasingly dim until, at great depths, scarcely any light is visible at all.

Divine bliss, then, as it enters human consciousness, is experienced by the pure-minded as joy. As it enters natures that are more centered in their emotions, it is experienced as happiness. Those who are attached to the senses experience it as pleasure. And so on downward bliss moves, into ever denser ego-consciousness. It virtually ceases to be recognizable at the lowest levels of human awareness. Here, those people who are self-committed to spiritual darkness experience it primarily as an occasional lessening of pain.

For all creatures, the direction of their seeking is essentially the same: to escape pain and limitation on the one hand, and to find happiness on the other. They may define pain in many ways, but essentially it amounts to a lessening of whatever degree of happiness they have known in life. For intuitively they know, in their souls, that they have a right to happiness. Again, they may define limitation in countless ways, but essentially it is the constriction the soul feels in its confinement in the ego. And they may define happiness, too, in many ways, but essentially happiness is the deeper-than-conscious anticipation of the soul's return home to its lost bliss in God.

Men are coaxed forward on the path to enlightenment by the law of karma. If they fail to act in harmony with their higher nature, they experience pain. And if they act in harmony with that nature, they experience increasing inner peace and happiness. Those who are harmonious, which is what Jesus meant by "meek" in the Beatitudes, "shall inherit the earth."

Thus, man is drawn gradually toward his true destiny, the final fulfillment of all his dreams. Willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, on one level of existence or another, no creature can repudiate God. All tread the sure path to Him, however faltering or reluctant their footsteps. Even those people who shake their fists angrily at a God of their own fevered imaginings do so out of a frustrated desire for what they wish were the true God.

Numerous, alas, are the detours on the soul's long journey through delusion. Some people think for a time that they'll find happiness in money. Others look for it in fame, or good health, or power. They fail to understand that happiness is, in itself, intangible. It is a state of mind. As the thoughts in the brain are distinct from the brain itself, so is happiness distinct from the changing forms in which imagination clothes it.

The devotion of those who follow the path to God consciously, Krishna says, also takes many forms. He implies that devotees should accept the need of others to worship God in other ways. For people are not all alike in the inspiration they feel. Some find joy in singing to God; others, in working for Him; still others, in deeply pondering His mysteries. No one way is right for everyone.

Those who feel inspired by singing to the Lord may feel a distaste for theological discourses. And those who enjoy discussing subtle Scriptural points may feel a distaste for singing. A sweet taste can be enjoyed in many ways: as chocolate, as candy, as fresh fruits. No one way is equally pleasurable to everyone. Sweetness itself, however, is pleasurable to all.

The Gita here not only says that all men, each in his own way, pursue some path to God. It also says the Lord appears to His worshipers. Thus, while guidance comes generally to all mankind through karmic law, devotees establish an inner, conscious relationship with the Lord.

Man first learns respect for the law. His respect evolves, in time, into divine devotion. Devotion, finally, attracts divine grace. God appears to His devotees, and reveals to them the truths of His eternal nature. In whatever form we worship God, and by whatever paths we strive to reach Him, He blesses us, eventually, with His bliss.

In this stanza we find a beautiful parallel to the verse in the Bible, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) The role of Jesus Christ, and also that of Krishna, is to bring souls back to union with God.

Thus, through the Bhagavad Gita, God has spoken to mankind.

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