12 Sep 2012
[Shri Swami gave this discourse in response to Mr. Anil’s inquiry about the essence of the messages of Lord Jesus to this world.]
After rigorous penance for about 40 days on a hill, Jesus presented the essence of all His future messages through the prayer followed by a miracle. Thousands of people gathered, who became very hungry in the hot mid-day. There were only four pieces of bread in the basket. Jesus lifted the basket up and did not pray God to provide more pieces of bread for the sake of hungry devotees. He prayed God, expressing the gratefulness for providing those four pieces of bread and asked the disciples to serve those four pieces. Jesus thanked God looking at the past and was not worried about the problem of present and future. There is no need of any suggestion to the omniscient and omnipotent God. Sometimes, you may have to remind your superior officer regarding some suggestions related to the situations in the present and in the future. The reason is that your officer is a human being with a limited brain and limited capacity. But, in the case of God, such requirement does not arise. Since Jesus did not ask for the provision of more pieces of bread, it is quite possible that God might have kept silent. Even if Jesus asked for more pieces of bread, God might have kept silent. The reason for such silence may be to test the devotees regarding their interest in the divine knowledge in spite of the hunger. Jesus will think in this way only if the miracle was not done. He would have not uttered a single word of blame if the miracle was not performed. That is the real devotion to God. Jesus wanted to preach such devotion to the public.
You should always pray God with full gratefulness looking at your past. God has already granted 100 favours, giving you this human birth, which itself is the first favour. Health, wife, children, money, education, devotion etc., are the 100 favours already done to you by God. Your prayer never touches any of these favours already done to you in the past. Jesus explained that even the problems are also favours, which stimulate you to come near God. His idea was that you should thank God even for the problems, which help you to develop the devotion to God. In the worldly affairs, you should be reverse to this concept. You should never think of the past and should concentrate only on present and future in your worldly duties. Hence, God is reverse to the world.
Today, the prayers concentrate on the problems of the present, expecting the happiness of their relief in the future. According to Jesus, your prayer should be mere acknowledgement of the past favours done by God to you. Since this direction is absent, you have become the most ungrateful devil forgetting the long list of favours already done to you by God. Nobody mentions even a single favour already granted by God. From the beginning to the end, the prayer concentrates on the present and future only assuming that the favours already done were due to the results of good deeds performed by the individual. In such case, continue with the good deeds and naturally your present and future will be good. Where is the need of prayer to God?
[Mr. Anil asked why this point of removing selfish demands from prayers was not enlightened by the preachers of Bible and Jesus. Shri Swami response is given below.]
The reason is that this angle will never be liked by the public. People want God to solve the present problems for the happiness in the future. Expressing gratefulness for the past, which is already achieved, is of no use. If God is confined to the past only, nobody will waste the time in the unnecessary activity of expression of gratefulness for the past. The preacher is always to the tune of the people only like a politician. The preacher is also one of the public and will have the same attitude only. This is the reason for the closure of this angle.
It is easy to understand the preaching of Jesus, but, the most difficult part is to understand Jesus as the human incarnation of the unimaginable God in which both the human being and God co-exist like current and wire. This concept is not digested by the majority of the public, which crucified Him due to ego and jealousy. The majority always likes Jesus to be one among them and the existence of God in Him can never be tolerated. Of course, people do not mind much to give a little specialty as the Messenger of God. Some people, who are filled with ego and jealousy from top to bottom, will not agree even to this little specialty and such people are almost atheists or demons. The Messenger means a human being existing in the kingdom of God like any other human being, selected by God for service. This reflects the first statement ‘I am in the light’. This corresponds to the Dvaita philosophy of Madhva. This is dualism insisting on the total difference between God and human being even though the human being is possessed by God. This is correct in the sense that God is unimaginable and the human being is imaginable. But, this difference is not opposing the truth that such a human being is possessed by God. Current is the stream of electrons and the wire is the chain of metallic particles. Both are totally different. But, this difference does not oppose the truth that a specific metallic wire is possessed by current. Every wire need not have the current and hence, every human being is not possessed by God. Again, this point provokes the jealousy of the people. The second statement ‘the light is in Me’ is that a specific devoted human being selected by God is possessed by God. This corresponds to the Son of God only in whom the blood of the Father is flowing. Everybody is not the Son and so every human being is not possessed by God. Even though Father and Son are different individuals, the Son cannot be isolated from the Father due to the blood. The separable and inseparable concepts co-exist and this is the Vishishta Advaita of Ramanuja, which is a bridge between Madhva and Shankara. The Advaita belongs to Shankara, which is the oneness of the two inseparable items like current and wire during the period of flow of current in the wire. Hence, the human being possessed by God is treated as God for all practical purposes. This is reflected by the statement ‘I am the light’. This is supported by other statements like ‘I am the truth’ and ‘I and My Father are one and the same’.
The human being possessed by God is also an ordinary human being like anybody else before the possession. This human being is selected by God to spread His message and is called as Messenger. The jealousy in others starts here itself since others are not selected. This is zero level of people. Such people, who could not tolerate Jesus even as the Messenger, were shocked to hear second and third levels crucified Him. The jealousy further grows if the Messenger is possessed by God and becomes Son of God. Mohammad, the next Prophet stopped at the level of Messenger itself, to avoid the further growth of the jealousy and opposed the concept of human incarnation. The second stage, which is the entry of God into a specific human being and the third stage, which is treating the specific human being as God, are more and more provoking to the zero level and are dangerous. Mohammad avoided the second and third stages and hence, was saved from crucifixion. Jesus announced the three stages separately to the three levels of people. The problem is that the zero level people also hear the statements of the first, second and third levels. The zero level people, who cannot tolerate even the first level, will be upset more and more to the higher and highest levels. People of different levels are not isolated by walls. The small cat will also enter the big hole of Newton! Therefore, Mohammad thought that it is better to stand on the first level itself. The first level is inevitable because the message of God should be spread standing as the Messenger. The zero level people will be hurt by the first level also, but, there is no much danger in absence of the second and third levels. The reaction will reach climax when the zero level receives the statement of the third level!
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