The Miracle of Christ - Talk by Swami Paramatmananda - Part 2

[Guest guest]

[Continued from a talk given by Swami Paramatmananda at MA Center

while he was in residence there between 1990 and 2001. This talk is

transcribed in volume 6 of his " Talks " books.]

 

There is a misconception that the prosperity of the western world is

due to the teachings of Christianity, whereas in India, the economic

problems are due to Hinduism, which teaches renunciation. This idea

reveals a total lack of knowledge of the teachings of both traditions.

Christ did not come to the earth to teach how to accumulate riches or

to make society prosperous. He came to teach the lessons that all

religions teach. There is no essential difference between religions.

They all basically teach exactly the same thing-- how to get rid of

the impurities of the mind such as greed, lust, anger, and pride, and

how to live in the world but not be of the world, being ready to leave

it at any time.

Christ came to cleanse society, to make people holy, to make people

pure. And above everything else, he taught renunciation. He said,

" Take my yoke upon you. Bear the same burden of renunciation that I am

bearing, and learn from me, for I am meek at heart. You'll find rest

for your soul if you become like me. "

Look at the western world. Where do you find that meekness? Where do

you find the lowliness that Christ is talking about? Where is the rest

of the soul that one gets by taking refuge in an Avatar? " Take no

thought of your life -- what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor

yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more than food,

and the body more than clothes? Behold the birds of the air, for they

sow not, nor do they reap nor gather into barns. Yet your Father, your

Divine Father feeds them. Are you not much better than the birds? " Is

this the gospel of health, wealth and prosperity? Not at all.

The prosperity in the western world is not due to Christ's teachings.

It is the outcome of human ambition coupled with discipline. The love

for comfort, the love for wealth, the love for power. That is all, and

that, too, done at the expense of the teachings of Mahatmas like

Christ. Of course, some of the teachings of both Krishna and Christ

are followed, and due to that, there is some peace in the world.

Otherwise it would be completely crazy, people eating each other. The

degree of selflessness, kindness, and patience that you see are due to

spiritual teachings. Spirituality is the cure for all the problems --

not materialism. Materialism only feeds the body and ego. It doesn't

give peace to the soul -- never!

Everyone, whether an angel or a demon, needs a role model. We all have

role models; maybe it is our mom, or dad, or somebody else. Even if

you're the worst demon, you'll have a demonic role model, but you will

still have a role model. And the more enlightened your role model is,

the more enlightened your life will be. There is a great deal that can

be learned from Christ's life.

It is surprising to find that most Christians have never or hardly

ever read the Bible. I wasn't born as a Christian, I was born a Jew,

but I never read the Old Testament. After going to India, not only did

I read the Hindu scriptures, but also the Old and New Testament, which

is the gospel of Christ. In a way, I was lucky, because I did not have

any misconceptions or preconceptions about these teachings picked up

from ignorant people. I found that they are all the same, to an

astonishing degree, down to the letter. You may be surprised to hear

it. They have the same laws regarding things like purity and impurity,

about why one has to take a bath at certain times, and why one

shouldn't eat certain kinds of food. There are ways of purifying

impurity. All these rules are there in both Hinduism and Judaism, and

orthodox Jews and Hindus follow them even today. All the ancient

religions possibly came from the same source.

There is a beautiful book called the " Imitation of Christ " . It is

considered the number two bestseller in the Christian world. It was

written five hundred years ago by a monastic disciple of Christ named

Thomas à Kempis, and it is really a gem. Thomas tells us how to take

Christ as a role model. He writes, " Anyone who follows me shall not

walk in darkness. " These are the words of Christ, and by them we are

reminded that we must imitate his life and his ways, if we are to be

truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts.

Let it be the most important thing we do then, to reflect on the life

of Jesus. "

This is what we're going to do tonight - reflect on Christ's life.

There will be a particular vibration in the atmosphere tonight. So

many hundreds of millions of people celebrate Shivaratri on one night,

and so there will be a special effect from doing Shiva puja on that

night. Similarly, perhaps a billion people are celebrating Christmas

tonight. That vibration will trickle down to us if we also tune in.

Just as we consider so many Mahatmas as instruments of God, let us

also consider Christ as one such divine soul. As Amma's devotees, we

can compare him and her. I find them very similar. Amma gets

cruciified almost every day of her life, willingly. Christ knew what

was going to happen to him, yet he let it happen because he knew why

he came to earth. He was here to save souls -- jivas -- and inspire

them with devotion, wake them up, get rid of the evildoers and impart

spiritual principles to the people. This is what Amma is doing --

comforting, curing, inspiriting people and giving refuge to them.

They both have a mission. Amma's mission is a little longer than

Christ's, and she is probably contacting quite a few more people

because of modern transportation and communications. It is quite a

wonder when you think about it, that even without any of those things,

a large part of the world are devotees of Christ. He was just one

person in an unknown place, yet what an influence he exerted! Hundreds

of millions of people have been devoted to him for the past two

thousand years. And the obstacles that his disciples met with! It

wasn't that people were merely falling asleep when they were hearing

about Christ. There were people trying to kill his devotees, and in

fact, all of his direct disciples were killed. None of them died a

peaceful death in bed.

In those days, when Herod was the king, there was a man named

Zecharias, and he had a wife named Elizabeth and they were both very

old, but they had no children. Zecharias was a priest in the Jewish

temple. They had what they felt was a special temple. Many of you have

seen the movie " The Ten Commandments " . Moses goes up Mt. Sinai, the

Divine Finger appears and cuts out the Ten Commandments on stone

tablets, and then he comes down with those tablets. We don't know if

it happened exactly like that. None of us were there, or at least we

don't remember it if we were. The Jews were going through the desert

for forty years with these tablets. Finally, after settling down in

the Promised Land, they built a temple in which the tablets were

enshrined and that was to be the focus of Judaism in Jerusalem. It was

very important, very prestigious, very holy.

Zecharias was a priest there. One day, when he was waving incense in

front of the Torah, the Ten Commandments, an angel suddenly gave him

darshan, manifesting himself. Naturally, Zecharias was a little upset.

You could even say that he was freaked out. Imagine that you are doing

arati to Amma's photo and suddenly Swami Amritaswarupananda appeared

next to the chair and started talking. How would you feel about it? It

was something like that but more grand - it was an angel.

Well, what's an angel? I don't think an angel is necessarily some

being with wings that flies around everywhere. An angel is a celestial

being. Tomorrow, even some of us may become angels or celestial

beings. Anybody who does a lot of good things, and anybody who does a

lot of sadhana, will become a celestial being.

He told Zecharias, " Don't be afraid, because your request has been heard. "

What request? Sometimes, when people don't have children and they

intensely want them, they think about that all the time. Even though

he was old, he was still praying to God, " Won't I ever get a child? "

" Your request has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son,

and you shall call him John. " Not Jesus, John. " And you'll be full of

joy, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the

eyes of God and he won't drink any intoxicating liquor. "

I guess everybody in those days was boozing it up. Everybody --

otherwise why was he so particular about this point? This is the main

thing he tells about him, that he won't drink any booze. He will be

filled with God's presence, even while in his mother's womb. He will

turn many people towards God. He will go to make the people ready for

the coming of the Avatar - the Messiah. So who is this? John the Baptist.

Zecharias said to the angel, " How can I be sure of this? I'm an old

man, and my wife also is old. " Sounds like when Amma says something

and we say " How do you know that, Amma? " I know, I've done it myself

many times.

The angel answered him, " I'm Gabriel who stands in the presence of

God. " There are some really celestial beings that live in the Divine

Presence, and one of them is called Gabriel. It was he who came to

deliver the message, because it was very important. We could say that

he is probably one of the Lord's personal attendants or messengers. " I

was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. Behold, you

will be silent and not be able to speak until the day that these

things will happen, because you did not believe my words which will be

fulfilled in their proper time. "

It sounds like he's punishing Zecharias. " Because you did not believe

what I said, you're going to become dumb until these things happen. "

It may seem like that, but he's not really punishing him. It is to

give a sign to Zecharias that what's happening is real -- it is

actually a blessing.

Meanwhile, everybody is waiting outside and wondering what's going on.

" The arati's taking so long. Why doesn't he come out and bring the

prasad? " Finally, he comes out, but he can't speak. He can only make

signs with his hands. Then the people came to understand that

something had happened, that he had a vision while in the temple.

 

(to be continued)