COSMOLOGY

Genesis 1:1-9

King James Version (KJV)

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

² And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

³ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

⁵ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

⁶ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

⁷ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

⁹ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

Genesis 1:1-9

A brief elaboration taken from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda

Genesis tells us of the universal beginnings.

‘In the beginning God create the heaven and the earth, And the earth was without form, and void (pure consciousness, the creative thoughts of God that are the ideational causes of all beginnings). And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light (the basic building block of manifested forms, the structural essence of God’s triune creation. And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters (creative elements), and let it divide the water from the waters (the subtle causal and astral elements from the gross physical elements). And God made the firmament (fine vibratory etheric space providing a background for gross manifestation and serving as a curtain to divide the physical universe from the overlaying astral realm), and divide the waters which were above the firmament. And God called the firmament Heaven (the astral world secreted behind the etheric space). And God said, Let the waters (gross elements) under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear (materialization of gross elements into a physical universe’.

Heaven may be said to consist of three regions: where the heavenly Father lives in vibration less Infinity; where Christ Intelligence reigns and in which the angels (evolved beings) and saints reside; as well as the vibratory sphere of the ideational causal and the astral world.

These heavenly realms, vibratory and transcendent, are only figuratively ‘above’ the gross vibrations of earth ‘below’. They are in fact super-imposed, one on the other, with the finer screened from the denser manifestation through the medium and intervention of the firmament, vibratory etheric space, hiding the astral from the physical manifestation, the causal from the astral and the transcendent Christ Consciousness (the projected consciousness of God immanent in all creation) and Cosmic Consciousness (the Absolute; transcendental Spirit existing beyond creation; God the Father) from the causal.

Without this integration producing a physical instrumentality empowered by astral life, guided by individualized intelligence, all arising from consciousness, there could be no meaningful manifestation.

So the earth and its beings seemingly floating in limitless space as a result of blind forces is not happening; it is highly organized.

The physical cosmos is extremely small in relation to the grander astral cosmos, as is the astral universe in relation to the causal. Both the astral and causal havens are permeated with Christ consciousness and interlacing all is the cosmic consciousness of God, extending into the boundless infinity of blissful Spirit.

Different cultures and sects conceive of heaven according to their cultural, social and environmental habits of thought: a happy hunting ground, a glorious realm of endless pleasure, a kingdom with streets of gold and winged angels making celestial music on harps, a nirvana in which consciousness is extinguished in an everlasting peace.

Jesus said:” In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). These many mansions include the magnitude of Spirit, the Christ Consciousness sphere and the diverse higher and lower planes of the causal and astral realms. In general however, the designation of heaven is relegated to the astral world, the immediate heaven relevant to beings on the physical plane.

What happens at death of the physical body?

At death the physical body, a soul garbed in its astral form ascends to the astral heavenly level merited by the balance of that person’s good and evil actions on earth.

It is not that by virtue of death one becomes an exalted angel in heaven. Only those persons who become angelic in spiritual behavior and God communion on earth are able to ascend to the higher regions. Persons of wicked deeds are attracted to lower regions and may experience something like nightmares. The majority of souls awaken in a luminous land of incredible beauty, joy and freedom in an atmosphere of love and well being.

The astral land of light and beauty

The astral realm is a realm of light with astral land, seas, skies, gardens, beings, and the manifestation of day and night. All are made of vibrations of light. Astral gardens of flowers that are planted on the soil of ether surpass human description. The blossoms glow and are ever changing but never fade, adapting themselves to the astral beings. They disappear when not wanted and reappear with new colors and fragrance when desired again.

Astral beings use all their subtle senses as physical man uses them in dreams. The difference is that inhabitants of the astral heavens consciously and at will control their surroundings.

The earth is full of decay and destruction, in the astral world; havoc caused by any clash of inharmonious vibrations could be remedied by mere willing.

The astral realm is many times older than this earth. Every physical object, form and force has an astral counterpart. The astral realm is a factory of life, the world of life force from which this atomic universe is being created.

Birth and death

Birth and death are merely change in consciousness. When the physical body dies, a being loses the consciousness of the flesh and becomes aware of the subtle astral form in the astral world. At a karmically predetermined that astral being loses consciousness of its astral form to undergo a rebirth in the physical world. When the astral garbed soul leaves the astral world at the end of its astral life, it is attracted to parents and an environment on earth (or to similar inhabited planets in others universes) which are suited to the working out of that individual’s good and bad karma.

No one is born of a woman’s body in the astral realm. There is only spiritual marriage in that realm, without co-habitation. If children are desired, they are created by inviting a soul usually departed from earth into an astral body.

The earth memories of astral beings gradually fade, but they meet and recognize many of their loved ones lost to them on earth. So many mothers, fathers, children, friends, spouses, of so many incarnations, that it is difficult to isolate special feelings for one over another. The soul rejoices to embrace them all in its consciousness of universal love.

Advanced astral beings

Advanced astral beings can travel any plane or region of the vast astral heavens, traveling faster that the speed of light. Causal beings transcend time and distance in an instant of thought.

Our human body has become disassociated from its heavenly essence because of its identity with the physical world. But Jesus intimated when he told Nathanael that ‘he would see heaven open and angels ascending and descending on the Son of man’, it was a promise, that man has a divine inheritance to reclaim the omniscience of spiritual perception, that heaven and its wonders can be realized in the here and now.

*Nathanael said to him,’ whence knowest thou me?’Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’ Nathanael answered and said unto him,’ Rabbi, thou art the son of God; thou art the King of Israel’.

                                                          (John 1:48-49)