What Star did the 3 Wiseman use to Navigate their way to Baby Jesus?
An interesting and inspiring excerpt from Paramahansa Yogananda regarding The True Nature of Star of the East that the 3 wise men saw to find their way to Bethlehem.
From the highly recommended book Man’s Eternal Quest’s chapter titled “A Jesus Christ of East & West”
By Paramahansa Yogananda
THE TRUE NATURE OF THE STAR OF THE EAST
The parallelisms of Christ's teachings with Yoga-Vedanta doctrines strongly support the records known to exist in India, which state that Jesus lived and studied there during fifteen of the unaccounted for years of his life — no mention is made of him in the New Testament from his twelfth to thirtieth year. Jesus journeyed to India to return the visit of the “three wise-men from the east'' who came to pay homage to him at his birth.
“There may have been a celestial manifestation; a meteor or star that showed up there at that particular time, but that’s not the star that the three wise-men were following.”
They were guided to the Christ Child by the divine light of a star — not a physical luminary, but the star of the omniscient spiritual eye. This "third eye" can be seen within the forehead, between the eyebrows, by the deeply meditating devotee.
The spiritual eye is a metaphysical telescope through which one can see to infinity in all directions simultaneously, beholding with omnipresent spherical vision whatever is happening in any point of creation. The spiritual eye has been mentioned in the teachings of India, and Jesus referred to it too:
"The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
Brought thus to the stable in Bethlehem by the guiding light of the spiritual eye, the Wise Men recognized and honored the infant Christ for the great soul and divine incarnation that he was. During the unknown period of his life Jesus repaid their visit.
Even in the name and title of Jesus we find Sanskrit words with a corresponding sound and meaning. The words Jesus and Isa (pronounced Isha) are substantially the same. Is, Isa, and Iswara all refer to the Lord, or Supreme Being "Jesus" derives from the Greek form of the name Joshua or Jeshua, a contraction of Jehoshua, "help of Jehovah" or "Savior."
The title "Christ" is also found in India — it was perhaps given to Jesus there — in the word "Krishna," which sometimes I purposely spell "Christna" to show the correlation. "Christ" and "Krishna" are titles signifying divinity, meaning that these two avatars were one with God. While residing in physical form their consciousness expressed oneness with the Christ Consciousness (Sanskrit Chaitanya), the Intelligence of God omnipresent in creation. This consciousness is also called the "only begotten son of God” because it is the sole perfect reflection in creation of the Uncreated Infinite.
To understand what Christ Consciousness means, consider the contrast between your consciousness and that of a little ant. The ant's awareness is limited by the minuscule size of his body, your consciousness resides throughout your relatively capacious form. If anyone touches any part of your body you are aware of it.
Creation is the body of God, and His consciousness omnipresent therein is called the Christ Consciousness.
He is aware of whatever we do within His universal form, just as we are conscious of our little selves. Through oneness with that Christ Consciousness Jesus was able to know, without being told, that Lazarus was dead.
It is the unique potential of human beings to attain the omniscience of oneness with Christ Consciousness. I ask those who do not believe in God "Whence came the intelligence in man and in the universe, if it is not produced in some divine 'Factory' hidden behind the ether?" Such mysteries prompted Einstein to say that space looks very suspicious. Space is concealing God, His Intelligence is hidden there, for out of the "nothingness" of space comes everything.
Being one with this Intelligence, which guides every atom in creation, Jesus could materialize his form anywhere he wished. And he can still do so, just as he used to appear every night to St. Francis in Assisi. Jesus was conscious not only of his microcosmic physical form, but also of all creation as his macrocosmic body, he could truthfully say "I and my Father are one.”
He experienced his presence in all atoms, even as does his Father. Jesus alluded to the omnipresent Christ Consciousness when he said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a far thing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without [the sight of] your Father."
Christ came at a critical time in history, when the world was sorely in need of spiritual hope and regeneration. His message was not intended to foster multifarious sects, each claiming him as their own.
His was a universal message of unity, one of the grandest ever given. He reminded mankind that it is written in the scriptures, "Ye are gods", and St John voiced the inspiration and spirit of Christ's teaching when he said, "But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Was there ever a greater message? Jesus assured the downtrodden, the white and the dark man, the Oriental and the Occidental, that they are all children of God, whoever is pure in heart, no matter what his race or color, can receive the Lord. The charcoal and the diamond receive the same rays of the sun, but the diamond reflects their radiance. So, both in the Orient and the Occident, those who have diamond mentalities shall reflect God and be called the sons of God, and those who keep themselves dark with evil qualities shall not be able to reflect His light.
*If you are interested in learning more from Paramahansa Yogananda, including who the Three Wisemen really are and much more, you can order his comprehensive Self Realization Fellowship lessons here. The following book is also highly recommended:
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
