He is Risen

On Easter we celebrate the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead after being in the tomb for three days.  I remember growing up when the first greeting of the day my parents would say to us was, “He is risen,” and we would respond, “He is risen indeed.”

This has stuck with me as I’ve grown older and have researched many cultures around the world and have come across similar resurrection stories.  One religious tradition in particular that has grabbed my focus for many years is the tradition of the yogis or sannyasins. 

Paramahansa Yogananda is from this tradition and it is from him that I have read about other spiritual masters who have willfully left the body only to return in a more luminous form to their disciples.  The great Babaji is one such being who is perpetually in his twenties and materializes to seekers in the Himalayas.  Yogananda’s own master Yukteswar Giri also left his form and returned to visit Yogananda some weeks after.  Yogananda talks about how he came back to him while he was in a hotel room and he could hold and touch him as usual. 

Many people have also reported seeing Shirdi Sai Baba after he left his physical form and there have been reports of people seeing Satya Sai Baba as well since he left his physical form in 2011. 

The point I feel is not to focus too much on the seemingly supernatural act of returning from what we call death, but to realize the capability of human existence to become Christ-like.  To be like Christ and be loving, compassionate, truthful, peaceful, and every other quality that Christ represented. 

In so doing we raise our vibration to a level that makes it capable of doing so-called miraculous things.  If you think about it scientifically, an object that is incapable of vibrating fast can never reach a high velocity of vibration.  However, an object that is capable of vibrating fast can conversely reduce its vibration to a slower rate.  That’s why we are told by many masters to continue with our spiritual discipline till we reach the goal. And that goal is to raise our vibrational frequency to the point where we are able to disassemble our molecules and leave our physical form behind.  In essence we “rise” to a level of a master.  As a master we would then be able to, if so desired, reduce our vibrational frequency so we can assume a physical form again. 

We are capable of so much more than we realize and it is for that reason masters like Jesus, Babaji and Sai Baba come to us in physical form, to show us our unlimited potential.  The physical body is just a vehicle that houses the spiritual being.  We are actors on a stage who have donned a physical costume to play out certain parts of a drama.  Fortunately we are able to leave the stage each night during sleep and if we are diligent enough we can leave the stage when we meditate.  When we make our final exit from the stage, who knows, some of us may be able to return in our luminous bodies if we desire to do so, and we may be like these ascended masters who have risen and have risen indeed.