The Second Coming of Christ: Steps Toward Attaining the Consciousness Which Was in Christ

The “Second Coming of Christ” extracted solely from the 20-years of Self-Realization Magazine publication from April 1932 through Yogananda's mahasamadhi in March 1952. In all the articles total 157, plus one additional essay by Master on the Spiritual Eye in July 1932 in his essay "The Metaphysical Cosmos." All churches should be structures without sectarian names if possible and should open their doors to truth-seekers of all races, giving them discipline in the art of God-contact. The purpose of a shop is to sell things, but the purpose of a church is to give God-contact. And if it claims to give that it must do so or cease to exist as a spiritual force. Every spiritual teacher who has studied under another great teacher should pass his life more in meditation than in reading books, and should transmit his spirituality to real seekers, whom he meets through the will of God and proper moral publicity, by regularly meditating with them whenever he can, in small groups, in quiet places or secluded centrally located places in a city. If all the churches get together and follow the above method they will bring about a real revival of Christ-consciousness in the heart of true seekers. When true seekers and worthy ministers will deeply meditate together then in the expanded cup of their consciousness the Christ-consciousness that was in Jesus will manifest in them and thus bring about the Second Coming of Christ. December 1938 Volume 11 #2, p 25 I often lament that although Jesus was crucified once, his teachings are crucified all the time at the hands of dogmatic theology and ignorant theologians. Surely the time has come to stop the true Christ teachings, as given by Jesus, from being crucified by theological misunderstandings. These pristine teachings must be resurrected from the tomb of dogmatism by the help of Self-realization, and by enlightened perception of their true meaning. It must be remembered that since the Christ Consciousness was fully manifest in the consciousness of Jesus, it is the duty of truth-seekers to expand their individual consciousness and manifest there the second coming of this Consciousness. It is futile to look for another Christ coming out of the clouds. God, who is humble though almighty, will never permit a spectacular demonstration of His glory before the indevotional gaze of wicked people. But by moral discipline, continuous devotional prayer and deep meditation, God can be contacted as the ever-new joy of silence. This ever-new joy felt in meditation also denotes contact with Christ Intelligence, since God and Christ Consciousness are One. When the devotee feels God (or Christ) as the tangible ever-new joy of meditation, he should love this divine state with all the devotion of the heart, with all the intuition of the Soul, with all the undivided concentration of the mind and with all the strength and energy of the body. By doing this the devotee follows the highest commandment (law) required to know God, then his contact with this Consciousness, sensed as the ever-new joy of meditation, will be the real second coming of Christ and it will take place right in the devotee's consciousness. Volume 19 #3 November-December 1947