24 Mar 2025
Please give the essence of the following verses from the Bible.
[Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami, kindly give the essence, which can be learned from the following verses from the Bible. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. [Luke 4:1-2]. Why was Jesus tempted by satan, and why only after 40 days He felt hungry?]
Swami replied:- The human being-component of the human incarnation is tested by its own God-component for the sake of spiritual knowledge to be preached to humanity. The concepts gain significance by such scenes of the divine drama. The incarnation itself is for the purpose of preaching devotees. God will not interfere with the properties of the medium like hunger, thirst etc. This is warning to devotees not to forego food for very long time.
[Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” John 6:29. How is the work of God only to believe in the human incarnation?]
Swami replied:- It means that God merges with the human medium so that humanity believes it and gets the spiritual benefit fully. The work of God is entirely concentrated on this point.
[To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. [Proverbs 21:3]
Swami replied:- Following the right path and doing justice in every action pleases God. This is better than sacrifice of animals for God.
[“But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” [Matthew 16:15-16]
Swami replied:- Peter treats Jesus as messenger and son of God. He could not see Jesus as God in human form. He failed in the test of God. He succeeded in crossing the first and the second levels, but failed in the ultimate third level.
[No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.[ John 1:18]
Swami replied:- When God incarnates, the external human medium with which God merged is treated as ‘Son of God’ because the medium is a part of the creation created by God. The medium is just the dress and God is the dressed person. The dress is always closest to the dressed person. With the help of this dress only, all can see God. The naked person unseen by anybody (unimaginable-unmediated God) and the dressed person seen by everybody (mediated God) are one and the same. Hence, God and human incarnation are one and the same and hence, the incarnation is called God.
[Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. [1 John 5:5]
Swami replied:- The worldly bonds can be destroyed by a human form of God only since all the worldly bonds are human beings only. A diamond can be cut by another diamond only.
[The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (Jesus) have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. [John 10:10]
Swami replied:- The ‘thief’ here is the worldly bond that loves you for its own happiness and not for your happiness. God in human form loves you for your happiness since He is an infinite ocean of bliss not requiring anybody’s help.
[Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. [John 7:38]
Swami replied:- If one believes God in human form, rivers of bliss will flow in devotees since God is an infinite ocean of bliss.
[Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ [Acts 4:11].
Swami replied:- A devotee (builder) needs a foundational stone (cornerstone) for the strength of building the castle of love for God that gives permanent happiness. The human form of God is that foundational stone used to build the castle of devotion that gives bliss.
[Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. [Matthew 10:38]
Swami replied:- Cross means rejecting the basic ego, which is the thought of basic ‘I’. It denotes the total surrender of the soul to become the beloved servant of God. The practical service of God is the ultimate path to please God.
[On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink.” [John 7:37]
Swami replied:- This thirst is not the worldly thirst. It is the thirst for God. God can be approached in human form only. The statues and photos serve the thirst to very little extent. The contemporary human incarnation (alive human form of God) removes the thirst completely by giving bliss.
[God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. [1 Corinthians 1:28-29]
Swami replied:- The souls are existing due to the gifted absolute reality by God and hence, can be treated as the things that are. Here, the word ‘things’ means worldly items. These souls are satisfied by very low-level things, which are unreal since such things are not gifted with the absolute reality of God. These souls can’t boast before God that they have attained real things.
[Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. [Mark 13:11].
Swami replied:- If you think that God is speaking through you in the court, you will speak the truth that will definitely save you since God is truth.
[What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? [Matthew 16:26]
Swami replied:- The soul shall not be sacrificed for the sake of worldly benefits. The soul shall never sacrifice God for the sake of the pleasure of atheists. The worldly benefit is inherently unreal whereas God is inherently absolute reality for you in this world and the upper world later on.
[“Are you so dull?” He asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.). [Mark 7:18-19]
Swami replied:- The food enters stomach and comes out as wastage. But, the divine spiritual knowledge enters the heart and stays there forever. It always radiates through the mouth as divine preaching.
[And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him (Adam) from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. [Genesis 3:22-23]
Swami replied:- One shall take the food granted by God and shall not take the forbidden food although it looks like food. All the vegetables are granted by God as food since the plants do not have nervous system and brain to suffer while they are cut or eaten. An animal or bird may look like the same vegetarian food since both have the same carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals etc., but the zoological kingdom has nervous system and brain to suffer a lot while being eaten (or while cut before eating). The botanical kingdom has no brain and nerves to suffer while they are cut for eating. God has passed strict command in the Veda to eat only vegetarian food (Oṣadhībhyo'nnam).
[You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [Matthew 5:27-28]
Swami replied:- Once a woman is looked lustfully, further course of actions start like rape etc. If further practical steps are not taken, the soul will be strictly warned in hell. But, the first step will not stop with it only and will lead to the entire course of the practical sin. If the other side is not harmed in anyway, the soul is only warned in hell.
[I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [John 15:1-2]
Swami replied:- The actions of the soul that are fruitful in spiritual line are encouraged by God in every angle. If the actions are always materialistic only, the soul is punished severely in hell.
[Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” [Hebrews 13:5]
Swami replied:- Since God is omniscient and omnipotent, you can never fool Him by anyway of clever dealing. Money can be given by God so that you can serve Him more effectively. If such activity is absent, God will give you money that is sufficient for your lives. Hence, you must always be contented with whatever little you have and you shall not try to cheat others and grab their money and property.
[This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. [Ecclesiastes 5:18]]
Swami replied:- God maintains every soul in this world even if the soul is sinful. Even the arrested and jailed thief is given food by the government. Similarly, every soul in the world is fed by God in one or the other way. Except the food, you will not eat anything else and you will not carry anything including the food when you leave this world. By knowing this fact, it is minimum wisdom to always be good in this world and not to be bad on any occasion.
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