The Miracle of Christ - Talk by Swami Paramatmananda - Part 8

[Guest guest]

[continued from a talk given by Swami Paramatmananda while he was in

residence at MA Center from 1990 to 2001]

 

You may wonder, " Why did they want to kill him? He says such nice

things. Why was he crucified? What did he do? "

One day he went to the house of a Pharisee for a meal. After sitting

down, he started eating - he did not even wash his hands. Washing

hands before meals is a custom that the Jews had in order to remove

any impurity that may be on one's hands, not to mention dirt.

The Pharisee was thinking, " This guy is a real glutton. " Christ

understood and turned to him and said, " You Pharisees, you wash

outside, but inside you are very dirty, full of greed and wickedness,

you old fools. Did not God make the inside as well as the outside?

Purity is best demonstrated by generosity. But woe unto you Pharisees,

for though you are careful to tithe even the smallest part of your

income, you completely forget about justice and the love of God. You

should tithe, yes, but you should not leave these other things undone.

For how you love the seats of honor in the temples, and the respectful

greetings from everyone as you walk through the market. Yes, awesome

judgement is awaiting you, for you are like hidden graces in a field.

Men go by you with no knowledge of the corruption they are passing. "

Sir, said an expert in the Law, who was standing there, " You have

insulted my profession in what you just aid. "

" Yes, " said Jesus. " The same horrors await you. For you crush men

beneath impossible religious demands, demands that you yourselves

would never think of trying to keep. Woe to you, for you are exactly

like your ancestors who killed the prophets long ago. Murderers! You

agree with your fathers that what they did was right, and you would

have done the same yourselves. This is what God says about you. 'I

will send prophets and apostles to you and you will kill some of them

and chase away the others.' And you of this generation will be held

responsible, for the murder of God's servants. Woe to you, experts in

religion, for you hide the truth from the people. You won't accept it

for yourselves, and you prevent others from having a chance to believe

it. "

His words were very scathing. Tough words. Naturally these people

became very angry, as they were not spiritually minded. There is a big

difference between spirituality and religion. You may be the most

religious person and follow all the rules to the letter, but you may

not have a drop of spirituality in you.

Even the people that persecuted Amma before she became world famous,

were very religious; they had so much faith in God. But they had no

spirituality, so they couldn't understand her at all. They wanted to

do away with her, because her spirituality, her Universal Love, was a

threat to their lack of spirituality.

Christ, like any Mahatma, knew that all are stuck in the terrible

ocean of birth and death. We don't have much of a vision; all we see

is what's in front of us. The sages, on the other hand, know where

we're coming from, where we're going, and what we go through after

death. They tell us that this world is a terrible place. We shouldn't

want to stay here forever, coming and going, coming and going. Who

knows what we are going to be next time?

Somebody asked Amma, " If only the souls of the dead take birth, then

why is the world population increasing? " Many years ago there were a

billion people. Now there are five or six billion people. If those who

died are the ones that are reborn, where does the population increase

come from?

Amma says that there is no scarcity of souls in God's creation. There

are countless jivas, which include trees, creepers, insects, worms,

birds and animals. Any of these can take birth as a human being. When

a human being dies, he or she does not necessarily take birth as a

human being the next time. Where does it say that because we are a

human now, we will be a human next time? One might take birth as a

cat, or a dog or as anything else. According to each one's karma, the

jivas must accept any birth in the continuous cycle of birth, death

and rebirth. All the creatures of this world are evolving. By the end

of a particular lifetime, each creature reaches a certain level. In

some cases, downfall will occur. The next birth, whether it be a

higher one or a lower one, is determined by the evolution or

degeneration of that soul. It all depends on the physical, verbal and

mental actions which one performs. Therefore, there is no difficulty

in having an increase or decrease of population. It is scary when we

think that we are not guaranteed a human birth next time. We could

become anything, so we have to take our life seriously.

Our speech, thoughts and actions will determine what kind of birth

we're going to get. If we act like a pig, we may become a pig; if we

act like a dog, we may become a dog, and if we act like a mosquito, we

may become a mosquito. It is not funny. The Mahatmas know that, and

that is why they're so tough. And they know that people don't like

those tough words.

It was time for Christ to leave this world. He told his disciples that

he was going. He had a dinner with them. He washed their feet. Why?

Amma has a program in New York in the Universalist Church. There is a

huge mosaic mural on the back wall, a picture of Christ washing the

disciples' feet. Amma says, " Why did he do that? To show how humble we

have to become. " When even a Mahatma is showing that kind of humility

towards his own disciples, it goes without saying that the disciples

shouldn't be arrogant. They should be more humble than the Guru.

So he washed the disciples' feet and then sat down with them. While he

was eating with them, he said, " One of you is going to betray me. " And

sure enough, it happened like that. After they are, they went to a

garden and slept. The priests were looking for an excuse to kill

Christ, because he was such a threat to them, so critical of them even

though doing miracles for others. So they came to the garden with

soldiers and with Judas Iscariot, the traitor who informed them of his

location. Judas gave a kiss to Jesus so that the soldiers would know

which one was Jesus. They caught Jesus and took him away to the temple

where the priests were.

The priests wouldn't listen to anything he had to say. He was asked

whether he was the Messiah, to which he replied, " If I tell you, you

won't believe me. You won't even let me present my case. But the time

is coming soon, when I, the Messiah, shall be enthroned beside God. "

They shouted, " So you are claiming that you're the Son of God? "

" Yes, I am. "

Well, you would think that that would have been the end of the story,

but that only made them angrier.

Next, he was taken to Pilate, the Roman officer who was in charge of

the city. He was accused of treason, of saying that he was the king of

the Jews, and that he was inciting them against the Romans. The

soldiers beat him up and whipped him severely, and finally took him to

a hill called Golgotha. They nailed his hands and feet onto a wooden

cross, and hoisted him up. He died there. It was a miserable scene.

At the moment he died, there was an earthquake and a solar eclipse. It

became dark for a long time. His people took him down and kept him in

a cave-like tomb and sealed it. The soldiers guarded it because they

knew about Christ's prophecy that he would rise again three days after

death. If that happened, they did not want anyone to know about it,

because that would mean that he was indeed divine. Then there would be

a rebellion and a lot of other problems. So they put a huge stone to

keep the cave closed.