MEDITATION: THE DIVINE FARMERS PLOW
“Say ye not, ‘There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest’? Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that reapeth and he that soweth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, ‘One soweth and another reapeth.’ I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors” (John 4:35-38)Mortal life is governed by the law of karma: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” In this passage, however, Jesus used the parable of the sower, the laborer, the harvesting time, and the harvest to illustrate that the immortal soul of man, a reflection of transcendent Spirit, is above creation’s cause-and-effect subjugation. To one who is identified with his assumed mortal nature, the karmic law metes out wisdom and happiness only according to one’s earned merit. One who is identified with Spirit reaps without measure the infinite wealth of Divinity.
Thus did Jesus elucidate the superior law of the Divine Harvest: In ordinary farming there is a great deal of labor, and the harvest comes in about four months after planting; but Jesus said that reaping divine abundance is not a matter of laboring, waiting, and finally acquiring the spiritual harvest. The soul need acquire nothing. As a child of God, it needs only to remember what it already possesses in latent form: its infinite wisdom-inheritance from the Divine Father. The moment man’s consciousness transcends body identification into Self-realization, the soul’s contact with God becomes manifest, it’s God-essence revealed from beneath the wisdom-seared veil of ignorance.
“As enkindled flame converts firewood into ashes, so does the fire of wisdom consume to ashes all karma. Verily, nothing else in this world is as sanctifying as wisdom.” (Bhagavad Gita IV: 37-38)Human wisdom has to be cultivated gradually through the instrumentality of the senses and rational intelligence; but the measureless harvest of divine wisdom can be reaped instantaneously through the medium of intuition, developed through meditation. Jesus exhorted his followers, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields,” for all one has to do is to lift the consciousness from the plane of material vibrations to the ever-ready harvest of wisdom, glistening on the pure white fields of Cosmic Consciousness. The two physical eyes see only material Nature. Raising the gaze and consciousness in deep meditation to the third eye of spiritual perception, the aspirant beholds in the starry white light of soul realization the wisdom - and bliss-abundance that is his divine birthright – long forgotten, never lost, and instantly reclaimable.
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Source: The Second Coming of Christ, by Paramahansa Yogananda
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