Christianity and Yoga

Yoga provides a system of spiritual practice that can be used by anyone regardless of creed or race.

There is a vast difference between theoretical religion and philosophy and their actual practice.

Philosophy may be divided into three groups, ethics, psychology and metaphysics.

Ethics – scriptural truth as applied to material life points to human duty, moral law, in general how to behave.

Psychology – applies to mental well being – teaches how to analyze oneself, for no spiritual progress can be made without introspection and self study by which we endeavour to find out what we are and whether we have to change some of our ways.

Metaphysics – truth pertaining to the spiritual dimension of life – explains the nature of God and the way of knowing God.

These three methods taken together and put into practice lead us to a God centered life.

Let us view the nature of God in accordance with the New Testament –

John 1:1 – 4 KJV

In the beginning was the word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All Things were Made by Him, and without him was not anything that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Trinity -  the Christian Godhead as one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit.

        a group of three people or things.

        "the wine was the first of a trinity of three excellent vintages"

        the state of being three.

        "God is said to be trinity in unity"

God is three persons.

Each person is divine.

There is only one God.

Each of the three persons is completely divine in nature though each is not the totality of the Godhead.

Each of the three persons is not the other two persons.

Each of the three persons is related to the other two but are distinct from them.

Seen from the Kriya Yoga viewpoint:

The “Word‘ in yoga denotes intelligent vibration, intelligent energy going forth from God.

Before Creation, there is only undifferentiated Spirit

In manifesting creation, Spirit becomes God the Father,

Son and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

As soon as Spirit evolved a cosmic vibratory thought, the un-manifest Spirit becomes God the Father, the creator of all manifest creation. God the Father in Yoga is called Ishvara, the Cosmic ruler or SAT, the supreme pure essence of Consciousness; the Transcendental Intelligence.

This implies, that God the Father exists transcendentally, untouched by any tremor of vibratory creation – a conscious, separate Cosmic Consciousness.

The Holy Spirit:

The vibrating force emanating from Spirit, endowed with the illusory creative power of maya, is the Holy Spirit, or Cosmic Vibration, the Word, Aum ( OM ), or Amen.

It can be said, that all things, all created planets and beings in the Holy Ghost, or holy vibration are nothing but frozen images of God. It also can be likened to the Cosmic Mother that gives birth to all creation.

“These thing said the Amen ( the Word, Aum ), the faithful and the true witness, the beginning of creation of God.” 

Revelation 3:14 KJV

The holy Cosmic Sound of Aum or Amen is the witness of the manifested Divine Presence in all creation.

Could cosmic vibration alone sustain the universe?

The cosmic vibrations active in space could not of themselves create or sustain the complex universe. Blind forces cannot organize themselves into intelligently structured objects. The forms we see, suggest a hidden Immanent Intelligence.      

What is this hidden Intelligence?

The transcendent consciousness of God the Father became manifest within the Holy Ghost vibration as the Son – the Christ consciousness, God’s intelligence in all vibratory creation. This pure reflection of God in the Holy Ghost indirectly guides it to create, preserve and mould creation according to God’s purpose.   

Macrocosm and Microcosm

The cosmic vibration produces a triune creation.

A causal world of fine vibrations of consciousness, God’s thoughts or ideas that are the cause of all forms and forces; an astral world of light and life force, vibrating energy, and a physical World of gross atomic vibrations of matter.

These worlds are super-imposed on one another, the grosser depending on the subtler. All three worlds are dependent on the will and consciousness of God.

Man’s soul also has three coverings that serve as instruments through which the incarnate spirit can perceive, understand and interact with God’s creation.

The first sheath is the causal body. The causal body emits a magnetic force of light and intelligent energy that form the astral body.

The astral body consists of the life energy that empowers all the senses and functions of the physical body.

The physical body is the gross materialization of the causal ideas, activated by life energy of the astral body and endowed with consciousness, self awareness, and intelligence from the causal body.

All of these vibratory manifestations of the macrocosm and microcosm are derived from the Holy Spirit Vibration and the transcendental consciousness of God.