Heaven – Introduction

Jesus said: “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14.2).

These mansions may be interpreted as the different planes which I mentioned in my blog of 30 September 2011: Death – Reflection.  These planes of existence are the physical plane; the astral plane and the causal planes.

The following extracts from “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Sri Paramahansa Yogananda will give insight into the many mansions which Jesus spoke of. What a

joy and privilege to share this with you.

Extracts from Chapter 43: The resurrection of Sri Yukteswar:

God encased the human soul successively in three bodies – the idea, or casual body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional nature; and the gross physical body.

On earth man is equipped with his physical senses. As astral being works with his feelings and a body made of lifetrons/ prana/energy. A causal- bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas.

The astral universe, made of various subtle vibrations of light and colour, is hundreds of times larger than the material cosmos. The entire physical creation hands like a little solid basket under the huge luminous balloon of the astral sphere. Just as many physical suns and stars roam in space, so there are also countless astral solar and stellar systems.

The astral world is infinitely beautiful, clean, pure and orderly. There are no dead plants or barren lands. The terrestrial blemishes - weeds, bacteria, insects, snakes – are absent. Unlike the variable climates and seasons of the earth, the astral planets maintain the even temperature of an eternal spring with occasional luminous white snow and rain of many-coloured lights. Astral planets abound in opal lakes and bright seas and rainbow rivers.

The ordinary astral universe is peopled with millions of astral beings who have come from the earth, and also with myriads of fairies, mermaids, fishes, animals, goblins, gnomes, demigods and spirits, all residing on different astral planets in accordance with karmic qualifications. Various spheric mansions or vibratory regions are provided for good and evil spirits. Good ones can travel freely, but the evil spirits are confined to limited zones.

Among the fallen dark angels, expelled from other worlds, friction and war take place with lifetronic bombs or mental mantric vibratory rays. These beings dwell in the gloom-drenched regions of the lower astral cosmos, working out their evil karma.

In the vast realms above the dark astral prison, all is shining and beautiful. The astral cosmos is more naturally attuned than the earth to the divine will and plan of perfection.

Every astral object is manifested primarily by the will of God and partially by the will of astral beings. They possess the power of modifying or enhancing the grace and form of anything already created by the Lord. On earth a solid must be transformed into liquid or other form through natural or chemical process, but astral solids are changed into astral liquids, gasses or energy solely and instantly by the will of the inhabitants.

The earth is dark with warfare and murder in the sea, land and air, but the astral realms know a happy harmony and equality. Astral beings can dematerialize their forms at will. All astral beings are free to assume and form and can easily commune together. Everything is vibrant with God’s creative light.

No one is born of woman. The recent physically disembodied being arrives in an astral family through invitation, drawn by similar mental and spiritual tendencies.

In most cases the astral body is an exact counterpart of the last physical form. The face and figure of an astral person resemble those of his youth in his previous earthly journey.

Unlike the special, three dimensional physical world cognized only by the five senses, the astral spheres are visible to the all-inclusive sixth sense – intuition. By sheer intuitional feeling, all astral beings see, hear, smell, taste and touch. They possess three eyes, two of which are partly closed. The third and chief astral eye, vertically placed on the forehead, is open.

Beauty in the astral world is known to be a spiritual quality and not an outward conformation. Astral beings therefore attach little importance to facial features. They have the privilege, however of costuming themselves at will with new, colourful, astrally materialized bodies.

In the astral world, friends of other lives easily recognise one another in the astral world. Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realise the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life.

The intuition of astral beings pierces through the veil and observes human activities on earth, but man cannot view the astral world unless his sixth sense is somewhat developed. Thousand of earth dwellers have momentarily glimpsed and astral being, or an astral world. (On earth, pure minded children are able to see the graceful astral bodies of fairies. Through drugs or intoxicating drink, whose use is forbidden by all scriptures, a man may so derange his consciousness, that he perceives the hideous forms in astral hells.)

Communication among the astral inhabitants is held entirely by astral telepathy and television, there is none of the confusion and misunderstanding of the written and spoken word which earth dwellers must endure.

Man depends upon solids, liquid, gasses and energy for sustenance; astral beings sustain themselves principally by cosmic light. Astral beings consume vegetables and drink a nectar flowing from glorious fountains of light and from astral brooks and rivers.

In today’s blog, I have covered some of the basics which shed LIGHT on this glorious subject. Knowing that one day, I will again experience this plane gives me great hope, comfort and reassurance.