The Biblical story of Adam and Eve, who represent the first human beings, is an allegory for the fall of humanity and remains a mystery until we understand its hidden symbolism. The symbolic meaning of the following words in quotation marks allows us to understand the part of the story where Adam and Eve are tempted and is indicated by the words in parentheses.

After God has created Adam, he tells him that he may “freely eat from any tree” (enjoy any sense) in the “garden” (the body), but must not eat “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” “, which is in the middle of the garden, and according to Eve, “he must not touch it” or he will “die” (he will lose his spiritual life – consciousness of his bliss, spiritual power and immortality). However, the “snake” (temptation) tells Eve: “You will not die, for God knows that when you eat of it (eat the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden) your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good.” and evil”. Eve gives in to temptation and eats some of the fruit, assuming she will make one wise, and she also gives some to Adam and he eats it. Suddenly realizing they are naked, they sew fig leaves together to make aprons. (Genesis 3:1-7)

But they were naked before eating the fruit and were not ashamed. Why did eating the fruit make them feel naked and want to cover their bodies?

Eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil caused the first human beings to lose their original heavenly state of consciousness (Eden) and become almost totally subject to the limitations of the physical body. They felt guilty and ashamed, because they had disobeyed God’s warning and suffered great loss as a result. This part of the allegory can be explained in terms of the ancient Indian scriptures, as follows.

A tree with its roots, trunk and branches turned upside down resembles the structure of the nervous system of the human body, and the “tree of life” in the allegory represents the spiritual counterpart of the physical nervous system, the energy channels of the body ( nadis). ). The roots of a tree symbolize these channels in the brain through which vital energy flows to the centers of consciousness in the head and spine, and throughout the physical body, animating it; the trunk represents energy channels in the spine; and the extremities that extend from the trunk represent nerves and afferent and efferent energy channels. Nerves contain neurons, and each individual neuron has a tree-like structure.

The trees in the garden that God said Adam could eat from symbolize the sensory neurons with their branching extensions, but the tree in the middle of the garden (body), which was to be left alone, represents the neurons that receive sexual sensations. When the first humans “ate the fruit” of this tree (stimulated their sexual nerves), the powerful kundalini energy, which enlivened their divine consciousness faculties in the “tree of life” (the spiritual counterpart of the physical nervous system), was diverted from these faculties and channeled into the physical tree in the middle of the body. Their awareness of God and the “image” of him in them as love, light, intelligence, and the powers of the immortal soul was almost completely lost, and they experienced sexual sensations. Because they felt guilt and shame for what they had done, they felt naked and wanted to cover their sexual organs.

Furthermore, “they knew good and evil.” This means that our ancestors judged the things they liked as “good” and the things they disliked as “bad” or “bad.” God is an omnipresent and indivisible Spirit in which all things, even those perceived as bad, are united as one, but by mentally judging and rejecting the things they disliked, they began to perceive the separation. This made them lose awareness of God – the omnipresent and unifying Spirit in everything – and of the soul, image and likeness of God. By judging the things that displeased them instead of accepting everything as one, their awareness of God, the soul, and the power of the soul to manifest material things and experience divine love and unity were greatly reduced.

Thus, the heavenly state of consciousness of the first humans, the paradise of Eden, was lost, and they sought happiness and security in the body and material possessions. However, in the absence of God’s love, unity, and joy, happiness and security can never be found. Instead, fear, greed, and hatred increased, their bodies became denser, their world changed to reflect their matter-bound consciousness, and pain, sadness, fear, and death became all too familiar to them. . This was a tremendous loss, because in their original state of consciousness, their spiritual faculties were working and they could manifest whatever they wanted by the divine power within them. The fall of the first humans occurred long ago, and everyone on earth is subject to the legacy of dualistic thinking and the evil that resulted.

However, reading the first part of Genesis 3:22, one gets the impression that knowing good and evil is godly, since it is usually translated in the present tense: And the Lord God said: Man is made as one of us, knowing good and evil… Aim Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible says that “is” should have been translated as “was” and suggests that something like the following would be correct: And the LORD God said, The man who was like one of us has now fallen [knowing both good and evil]… “This makes sense because it was before they fell and knew good and evil that Adam and Eve were like God, and they fell knowing good and evil, because they began to lose awareness of God and judged things that they disliked as bad or evil, for example, pain, which served to alert them to what they should avoid.

Words cannot adequately describe God, but they can point us in the right direction, and we can think of God as bliss, love, unity, and light; as the only Supreme Consciousness, infinite and eternal, beyond time and space; and as the omnipresent and intelligent power that creates and permeates the cosmos. However, coming to know good and evil, human beings lost awareness of the wonderful powers of the Creator and of the soul as the image of God.

Although the Fall would have caused our parents, and ourselves by inheriting their traits and way of life, to experience guilt and fear and no longer know the innocence, peace, and other divine qualities each of us received when we were created, we must realize Realize that, at the core of our being, we are still divine, because the essence of each soul, the Self, is perfect and unchanging. When we transcend the lower mortal self, which in spiritual writings is called the ego, we will realize that we are the vast and eternal Self. Our consciousness will merge with God’s infinite consciousness, and through loving intentions we will extend God’s perfect creation, instead of desecrating it by seeking only to fulfill personal desires and fighting among ourselves. There is hope for humanity, because by following God’s guidance, practicing meditation and moderation, and forgiving and loving ourselves and others, the desires of the physical body will be tamed and transmuted, our soul’s descent into spiritual ignorance. and the deception will be reversed, and we will regain the consciousness of our immortality and unity with God.

Note: Paramahansa Yogananda discusses the Garden of Eden allegory in much more detail in God Talks to Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita (pages 28-29, 446, 930-932), published by Self-Realization Fellowship.