An introduction:
Paramahansa Yogananda found great joy in wholesome holiday festivities during the Christmas season. But he emphasized that the greatest way to honor the birth of Jesus Christ is with an inner celebration prior to our social gatherings.
Paramahansaji taught that through the practice of scientific meditation we can awaken within ourselves the same divine consciousness perfectly embodied and manifested by Christ. And he established devoting an entire day to meditation as the spiritual celebration of Christmas — a tradition that continues in Self-Realization Fellowship temples, centers, and groups around the world to this day — to put that sublime blessing within our reach.
Last year, the United Nations established World Meditation Day (December 21) to raise awareness about meditation and its manifold benefits. Below we share wisdom from Paramahansaji on the greatest gift we can receive by meditating — at Christmastime or at any other time — that of attuning our consciousness with God’s universal consciousness of divine love and joy known to Jesus and all great souls.
From the talks and writings of Paramahansa Yogananda:
Each year at Christmastime there are stronger than usual vibrations of Christ-love and joy that emanate to earth from the heavenly realms. The ether becomes filled with the Infinite Light that shone on earth when Jesus was born. Those persons who are in tune through devotion and deep meditation feel in a wondrously tangible way the transforming vibrations of the omnipresent consciousness that was in Christ Jesus.
What is Christ Consciousness? Christ is God’s Infinite Intelligence that is present in all creation....That Universal Intelligence, the Kutastha Chaitanya or Krishna Consciousness of the Hindu scriptures, was fully manifested in the incarnation of Jesus, Krishna, and other divine ones; and it can be manifested also in your consciousness. You, too, are a child of God. That same consciousness can be yours.
Withdrawing the consciousness from the body and finite world and merging it in the Divine is the only way to liberation in God. Jesus meditated. To the crowds he taught moral and spiritual truths — the necessary first steps toward God; but to his close disciples he taught the higher science of meditation for actual union with God.
I inaugurated in Self-Realization Fellowship the spiritual celebration of Christmas, before Christmas Day festivities, by devoting a daylong meditation service to the worship of Christ. The ideal is to honor Christ in spirit in meditation from morning till evening, absorbed in feeling in one’s own consciousness the Infinite Christ that was born in Jesus. That experience is one of profound peace and joy, more than a human heart has ever known — expanding into an all-embracing consciousness.
I am very happy that this message — to honor Christ’s birth spiritually by long, deep meditation on him — has been received and followed by so many Truth-seekers around the world. And it will be received by millions after I am gone.
Christ is the joy of meditation. It is his perception you feel in the deepest hours of silence. And this is my wish for you, that you may bring that Christ into your heart every day, every hour.
You can read more about how through meditation you can experience the truth of Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of God is within you,” in The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, Paramahansa Yogananda’s revelatory commentary on the four Gospels.
We hope that you will be able to join us for this year’s All-Day Christmas Meditation — and all of our special holiday events that will be offered online this December and into the new year.
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