Pramahansa Yogananda

THE SPIRIT

Manifestations of Spirit

The Spirit is imperishable, ever existent in the changeless nonvibratory sphere. As the moon is able to reflect itself on objects as a shining light, so the nature of Spirit enables It to reflect Itself as Cosmic Intelligence (Kutastha Chaitanya) and as individual souls shining through physical bodies.

The cosmic vibration (Aum) with its law of duality and relativity emanates from Spirit and causes the birth, sustenance, and dissolution of all matter and beings through the law of karma. This law of action holds sway over all activities of man and Nature. (...)

Para-Brahman, the absolute and all-inclusive Sprit

The transcendental supreme spirit exists in relation to the vibratory cosmos but is also beyond it. Sat or Being; God the Father, of the Christian Bible; Para-Brahman of the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedanta philosophy; Paramatman of the yogis; and Para-Purusha, Transcendental Spirit, are various names of this unchangeable supreme Spirit existing beyond the dream-structures of vibratory creation. (...)

In the first state the transcendental dreamless Spirit (or Supreme Brahman) exists beyond Its vibratory dream creations, beyond the cosmic Aum.

In the second state Spirit materializes Its consciousness into a vibratory dream universe. This objective cosmic dream structure is variously spoken of as the Cosmic Aum, the Abhasa Chaitanya or reflected light of Kutastha Intelligence; as the reflected creative consciousness of God, or the Word, the intelligent Holy Ghost vibration, which is the same as the intelligent Cosmic Prakriti, the Cosmic Sound, or the Cosmic Light. Still other terms for this objective dream universe are the Mahatattva or the great Vibratory Elements; and Mother Nature, or the Cosmic Virgin Mary, the Cosmic Intelligent Consort of God. This cosmic vibratory force derives its power from Kutastha Chaitanya, the pure reflection of God's intelligence in creation, and is the mother of all spiritual (elevating), material (activating), and evil (obstructing) activities (the three gunas) in the world.

This Cosmic Aum is also called visarga or "the two dots of duality," because by the dual law of relativity and by the triple qualities of the gunas it produces the cosmic film of delusion. God's beam of consciousness passing through this cosmic film of relativity produces the cosmic dream pictures. When these two dots of duality become one with God, the Cosmic Aum manifests Him. A yogi listening to the cosmic sound of Aum can see, on the external side, the dream of creation and all the activities issuing out of it; on the inner side he hears the cosmic sound that melts into the absolute bliss of Brahman.

The unmanifested Spirit uses the third part of Its consciousness to reflect Itself as the undifferentiated intelligence of creation (which becomes differentiated and active in the reflected creative Aum vibration —as previously noted). This Intelligence shining on creation is called the Kutastha or Christ Intelligence, "the only begotten Son of God," the sole undistorted pure reflected intelligence of the transcendental God in creation, or (in Sanskrit) the Tat. In the unmanifested state the Spirit is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Bliss. When It dreams creation, It becomes a Trinity. The transcendental God, dreaming through the Kutastha Intelligence and the Cosmic Vibratory Intelligence, becomes the objective dreams of causal, astral, and physical universes. The unmanifested Spirit thus in the creative state becomes the three: Aum-Tat-Sat; Holy Ghost, Son, and Father; or the objective Cosmic Dream.

This answers Arjuna's first question as to who is Para-Brahman or the transcendental God.

Adhyatma (soul)

Krishna reveals to Arjuna that an aspect of the nature of the transcendental God is to dream the cosmic universe and the creatures in it. His pure unchanging consciousness within the dream, providing the underlying intelligence, is the Kutastha Chaitanya, individually expressed as the soul.

As a dreamer in dreamland creates various images having life or soul, so the Divine Dreamer, God, becomes the various dream bodies of human beings and manifests in them as their dream souls. Each soul subjectively dreamed by God as an individuality in a specific body makes a composite dream man in the cosmos. Adhyatma signifies the underlying soul, adhy meaning "underlying" and atma meaning "soul." Therefore, Arjuna's question about Adhyatma is answered: Adhyatma is the underlying "universal soul" or Kutastha Chaitanya, and the individual dream soul encased in a body dreamed by God. It is said that He loves to dream Himself as separate souls. This gives the Lord an opportunity to play with the conscious dream-souls in His cosmic drama. (Chapter VIII, God Talks With Arjuna by Paramahansa Yogananda)

The Ultimate Realization:
Spirit within oneself and pervading the universe

Absorb thy mind in Me; become My devotee; resign all things to Me; bow down to Me. Thou art dear to Me, so in truth do I promise thee: Thou shalt attain Me!
—The Bhagavad Gita XVII:65

To know God as that Spirit which is the origin and end of all beings is indeed the ultimate knowledge. But knowledge of God as the All-in-All is possible only when the devotee realizes first the great "Myself"—that Spirit present within himself, as well as omnipresent in the universe.

I Have Regained Memory Of My Soul

Excerpts from Chapter XVIII, God Talks With Arjuna by Paramahansa Yogananda

Arjuna said:
My delusion is gone! I have regained memory (of my soul) through Thy grace, O Achyuta (matchless Krishna). I am firmly established; my dubiousness has vanished. I will act according to Thy word.
—The Bhagavad Gita XVIII:73

Arjuna acknowledges that it is principally by God's grace as manifested through his sublime guru that he has at last regained his memory of the blessed Self. He realizes that he has awakened from a dream in which he played the part of a human ego. His doubts about the Lord's omnipresence, fostered by incarnations of body identification, are now and forever dissolved. He stands ready to follow the advice he has received from the gracious Lord. (...)

In summation, the sublime essence of the Bhagavad Gita is that right action, nonattachment to the world and to its sense pleasures, and union with God by the highest yoga of pranayama meditation, learned from an enlightened guru, constitute the royal path to God-attainment. (...)

As God talked with Arjuna, so will He talk with you. As He lifted up the spirit and consciousness of Arjuna, so will He uplift you. As He granted Arjuna supreme spiritual vision, so will He confer enlightenment on you.

We have seen in the Bhagavad Gita the story of the soul's journey back to God—a journey each one must make. O divine soul! like Arjuna,

"Forsake this small weakheartedness (of mortal consciousness). Arise!"

Before you is the royal path.

spiritual eye

God — Sat-Chit-Ananda
Manifestations of God
Penetrating the Spiritual Eye
Complete Liberation in Spirit

The Goal of Human Existence
Manifestations of Spirit
The Ultimate Realization
I Have Regained Memory Of My Soul

Meditation on Aum
The Cosmic Sound
He who knows Aum (Om) knows God

The Holy Ghost
The Astral Sounds
Inner Peace and Joy

The Soul — Summary
The Reflection of Spirit
Desirelessness Frees the Soul
Man Has Three Bodies
Silent Witness