Despite the name, the fact of Christ Consciousness transcends Christianity, Hinduism, and every other religion.
Universal—Not Christian or Religious
The concept of Christ Consciousness needs to be understood as a universal truth.
Christ is the great master Jesus’ title, not his last name—“Jesus the Christ” which means “anointed of God” or “chosen by God.”
Christ is the English term for the Greek word Khristós, which is the translation of the Hebrew word, Messiah. Followers of Jesus believed him to be the Messiah as prophesied in the Old Testament. Therefore, they often wrote Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus is the Khristós or Messiah.
And too, Krishna in India was really Jaydava the Krishna. The words Khristós and Krishna have the same root and thus similar spelling.
The Sanskrit equivalent of “Christ Consciousness” is Kutastha Chaitanya.
Paramhansa Yogananda explained that the Christ consciousness is the spiritual essence hidden at the core of each individual, in fact at the core of every atom of creation.
God in Creation
Christ Consciousness is God’s Infinite Intelligence that is present in all creation. The Infinite Christ is the “only begotten son” of God the Father, the only pure Reflection of Spirit in the created realm.
Everything that exists is a manifestation of God’s own consciousness. The universe was dreamed by Him into existence. The atoms of creation form part of that dream.
Christ Consciousness is the awareness of the presence of God at the heart of everything in creation—every atom, being, plant, rock, animal, sun, moon, everywhere.
When you expand your identity from this body and personality to the omnipresent spirit, you realize your consciousness to be everywhere—all throughout the entire universe.
Then you have attained “Christ Consciousness,” just as Jesus and the other Masters have.
God’s Dream
We might be able to understand this more clearly by thinking of an analogy with our own dreams.
In our dream, there’s one character that is “us.” All the objects and everyone else is “not us.” We do things and interact with those people and objects. It all seems so real in the dream.
But when we wake up, we realize that it wasn’t real. We were only dreaming and everything in the dream was created out of our own consciousness. We are the dreamer, not the dream.
In a similar way, God’s consciousness creates the universe. This doesn’t in any way mean that he is defined by his creation or limited to it, any more than a dreamer’s reality is limited to his dream.
Our task is to wake up from the cosmic dream, find God hidden in his creation, and realize the Creator of the dream beyond all creation.
Another Analogy
When the sun alone exists, you say: “The sun alone is manifest.”
But when you place a crystal ball in front of the sun, you have three things—the sunlight beyond the crystal ball, the sunlight in the crystal ball, and the crystal ball itself.
So it was with Spirit. When He was alone, before He started Creation, He was called “Spirit.”
But when Spirit falls on the Cosmic Vibratory Creation, then Spirit becomes three things—God the Father (Father of all Creation), the Christ reflected within Creation (the Only Begotten Son, called so because He is the only intelligence in all matter), and the conscious vibration which is called “Holy Ghost.”
Our Destiny Is Self-Realization
That Universal Intelligence, the Kutastha Chaitanya 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, which is one with Cosmic Consciousness can be yours too. That is what you must always remember.
This is what St. John meant by:
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.”John 1:12
How to Experience Christ Consciousness
In order to receive the Christ consciousness we must expand our sense of self. The Christmas season, when we are already thinking about others, is a natural time to do this:
- We must want to find God. Just like knowing it’s time to stop dreaming and get up in the morning, we reach a sense of wanting to know God.
- Develop human sympathies. Every time we do a kind act, the energy in the spine rises. Go beyond your comfort zone and expand your sympathy as much as possible.
- Practice spiritual qualities such as love, joy, peace, calmness.
- Pray for the world and feel your consciousness expand out to include all those in need.
- Practice meditation. Focus at the spiritual eye and feel deep peace there.
Let us today prepare our consciousness to celebrate spiritually the birth of Christ. Let Christ, who is the pure reflection in creation of the Consciousness of God the Father, enter into our consciousness.