Be Like Jesus - 9

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one's own body; and depending upon how we look at this, we have been calling it

by different names. Christ spoke of these three stages of reality when he

made three statements, one after the other. Referring to the active individual

soul, the flickering moon, he said, "I am the messenger of God." Referring to

himself as the Yogi, who had risen beyond dualities and attained balance, he

said, "I am the Son of God." Realising that these two are but reflections, and

that the real moon is the witness in the sky and that he too was the Formless,

Nameless Absolute, he declared towards the end of his life, "I and my Father

are one." These three stages are this: in the first stage the messenger and

master are basically seperate, and so this stage is one of dualism (dvaita).

After using all of the powers and the energies at his command in a proper way,

Jesus learned that he was the Son of God. From the attitude of being a

messenger

of God, Jesus developed through the blossoming of Divinity and the expansion and

compassion and service in him, to this stage where he declared himself as the

Son of God. In this second stage, the son and the father, though two

different entities, are bound by affection and kindred feelings and attitudes.

They are like the whole and the part, the body and the limb; the bond of

relationship was now increased. This stage is called qualified non-dualism

(visishtadvaita). When the body-consciousness was predominant, he was a

messenger. With the heart-consciousness in the ascendant, he felt a greater

nearness and dearness, and so the son-father bond was natural at this stage.

When Jesus declared that he was the Son of God, he became entitled to the

paternal majesty and power. These he could claim only when he grew in the

qualities that his Father had. In the third stage, Jesus attained mergence

(sayujya), which lead him to assert, " I and my

Father are one." This is the stage of non-dualism (advaita). Then only he had

the experience of the Holy Ghost, the Divine. People who have sacred thoughts

and ideas will always have the viewpoint of non-duality (advaita) in whatever

they say. You should make an attempt to find good in whatever you see. Whether

you see good or bad you must regard it as good. If on the other hand, you begin

to look for bad in the good things that you see, it is very sinful. In the

Bible there is a very good example provided by Christ for such a situation.

There was a dead dog in a particular place and the birds and other animals were

eating the various parts of this dead dog and the pieces of flesh were thrown

all around in a helter-skelter fashion. Several people would not look at this

repulsive situation and they were turning away from this dead dog and were

moving at a distance. At that time Jesus was going along that path because of

the dead dog on the path. He then said that one must learn to see the good

aspect of everything. He asked if any one had ever thought of the very clean

set of teeth which belong to the dog and he asked if anyone ever brushed these

teeth for them to be so clean. He thus advised them to see only the good in all

aspects. --- Sri Sathya Sai Baba From the book, "Be Like Jesus" : The

Good News of Jesus in the words of Sri Sathya Sai Baba Compiled by Debra and

William Miller