He Whom Christ Announced

In this discourse—given in Bangalore, South India, on Christmas Eve 1972—Sathya Sai Baba talks about the real significance of Jesus’ life. At the end of the discourse, he explains the meaning of Jesus’ last words and their connection to the Sai advent.

Religions arise from the minds of good men who crave to make all men good; the good strive to eliminate evil and cure the bad. The individual has to start observing the limits and laws laid down and derive joy and strength from them. And then his cleansed mind will lead the way to higher and higher stages. He and the society of which he is a unit will thus benefit.

It is therefore appropriate that the birthday of Jesus, who felt the need to save mankind and who strove to achieve that aim, is celebrated. But this celebration must take the form of adhering to His teachings, being loyal to the principles He espoused, practicing the disciplines He propagated, and experiencing the awareness of the Divine He sought to arouse.

These days, the world is deriving satisfaction in mere words and in witnessing clever rules designed to cover up faults. People honor the birthdays of the great with such hypocrisy and external pomp. There is no examination in the light of the message they gave nor any effort to practice it and derive the bliss it promises.

The great teachers belong to mankind. It is wrong to believe that Jesus belongs only to the Christians and that Christmas is a holy festival only for the West. To accept one of these teachers as your own and discard the rest as belonging to others is a sign of pettiness. Christ, Rama, and Krishna—they are for all men everywhere.

Man is conditioned by feelings and deeds

The various limbs and organs together form a body; various nations and communities together form the world. The sustenance given by divine grace circulates in every part of the body, helping it to function in unison. The stream of love endowed by divine grace has to circulate in every state and community for the world to live in peace and joy. If this truth is realized, no idea of difference will arise.

If the members of a family are at loggerheads, its lands and other possessions will be uncared for and be either wasted or lost. The separation of one member will also be a big loss, for the grace that sustains the family will diminish and get lost. When a hand is amputated, a great deal of blood is lost during the removal and the limb loses its function. So, too, the divine grace of love is lost when a country sets itself apart; it also becomes a weak and functionless limb of the world community.

Division, difference, and distinction cut you off from the life-giving grace that feeds every cell of the body and every individual in the world. The world is sustained by the selfsame grace. A tree requires for its growth soil, sunlight and air. But more than these three, it requires the seed. Man’s life is conditioned by feelings and deeds and their consequences. However, his existence, his very “is-ness,” depends on the will of God.

Growing trees may differ according to the nature and quality of the soil and the quantity of sunlight. So, too, men may differ according to the consequences of their types of feelings and deeds. But just as it is true to say that the seeds are the same (one without any difference), the variety of forms, emotions and attitudes, and communities and loyalties are the result of man’s ignoring his fundamental unity in the one divine will and acting contrary to that unity.

Three statements made by Jesus

The moving water of a river has the moon in its depths; the still water of a lake also has the moon underneath; the sky has the moon up above. The moon in the flowing river is broken and fragmentary; it flows fast, apparently with the floods. The moon in the lake is calm, unmoved, and undistracted. These two are but reflections of the real moon in the sky. The moon reflected in the flood is the individual soul, engaged in activity, embroiled in illusion, in cause and effect. The moon reflected in the placid face of the lake is the yogi, the saint who has attained balance, equipoise and peace, dwelling in the One. The real moon in the sky is the eternal witness, the absolute, and the primal principle.

Speaking of these experiences of the soul, Jesus made three statements. Referring to the active individual soul, the flickering moon, He said, “I am the messenger of God.” Referring to Himself as the yogi who has risen above duality and attained balance, He said, “I am the Son of God.” Realizing that these two are but reflections of the real moon, which is the witness in the sky (that He, too, is the formless, nameless Absolute), he declared toward the end of his life, “I and My Father are one.”

All beings are images of the universal soul in the names and forms they have apparently assumed. This truth is enclosed, elaborated, and demonstrated in the spiritual texts of India, which form the basis of Indian culture. The essence of all religions and faiths, then, is the merging in this unity. The goal of all spiritual endeavor is the same merging. The object of all inquiry is to cognize this unity. But that patent fact is ignored, and people create strife, anxiety and unrest for themselves and perpetrate horrors to hold onto their support—the disunity so dear to their fractioned minds.

Man relishes things religion condemns

The passage of time has clouded the splendor of the message, the fascination exercised by the material and the worldly has drawn man away from the path, and the expansion of science and technology has made him conceited and wrong-headed. So he now relishes the very things prohibited, and promotes the very things condemned, by religion. All religions teach that you should revere your parents and show gratitude to them, but ridiculing parents and neglecting them have become fashionable now. All religions lay down that the aged are to be honored, since they are the repositories of experience and their guidance is indispensable, but now the elders and aged are treated as if they are nuisances and are handicapped. All religions insist on truth, but now the man who sticks to truth is laughed at as if he were a fool. Cruelty and violence, condemned by all religions, have raised themselves to the status of weapons of progress and means for desirable ends. However, the basic truths of religion are not affected or tarnished by the evil that men practice or the competitive propaganda they indulge in.

Sacrifice at least a desire or two

Only when you are not keen on practicing the founder’s message will you waste your energies in condemning other religions and glorifying your own. Once you enter sincerely on the path of spiritual practice, the urge to find fault with others or publish your own excellences will disappear. You will then celebrate the birthday of the founder only in a spirit of dedication, deepening the faith in your heart and revering its doctrines by more intense practice rather than by more emphatic argumentation. If you have the yearning to reach the goal, you have to follow the path that leads to it. When you learn to reach God, you have to observe the guidelines He has marked out.

You need not dwell on His name, or His lineaments, all the time. That practice may not take you far. But if you walk along the path, every step will bring you nearer to Him. When you need to reach a village, you have to rise and move toward it; it will not rise and move toward you. When you need to reach God, rise and move as He has directed you to. By this means alone can you make life worthwhile.

Jesus taught simple practical lessons in spiritual advancement for the good of mankind; He manifested divine powers to instill faith in the validity of His teachings; He marked out the path that can confer on men the sweet nectar of bliss. He exhorted people by precept and example to cultivate the virtues of charity, compassion, forbearance, love, and faith. These qualities are not separate and distinct; they are only the many facets of the Divine in man, which he has to recognize and develop.

Significance of the story of Jesus’ birth

People talk of the Jesus’ sacrifice, as evidenced by His crucifixion. But He was surrounded and bound, then crowned with thorns by the crowd that captured Him, and later nailed to the cross by his captors. A person bound and beaten by the police cannot say that he has sacrificed anything, for he is not a free man. Pay attention instead to the sacrifice that Jesus made while free, out of His own volition. He sacrificed His happiness, prosperity, comfort, safety, and position; He braved the enmity of the powerful. He refused to yield or compromise. He renounced the ego, which is the toughest thing to get rid of. Honor Him for these sacrifices. He willingly gave up the desires with which the body torments man; this is a sacrifice greater than that of the body under duress. The celebration of His birthday has to be marked by your sacrificing at least a desire or two and conquering at least the more disastrous urges of the ego.

The followers of Jesus have broken into schisms for various reasons, but His life was a lesson in unity. When Jesus was on the cross, ill feelings toward the men who tortured Him troubled Him. Suddenly, he heard a voice alerting him: “All life is one, my dear Son. Be alike to everyone.” This message was followed by another admonition: “Death is the dress of life.” As a person casts off worn clothes and dons another set, so the soul dons and doffs bodies. Therefore, Jesus was warned against hate and ill feelings as well as against the lamentation to which man is heir.

Manifestations at Jesus’ birth

The lives of great personalities are lived out to establish the welfare of humanity, the prosperity and peace of the world, and individual liberation from bondage to sensual desires and passions. This point is illustrated by the strange phenomena that occur at the time of their advent. It is believed that when Jesus was born there were such manifestations. The ruler of the realm had ordered a census, and each person had to be counted in his own village. So Mary and her husband moved along the road that led to his native village. Mary was with child, and the pains started midway. She and Joseph knew no one in the hamlet through which they were passing, so they took refuge in a cowshed. Joseph made ready the space between the cows and went out into the road at midnight to seek some woman who could help. But soon he heard the baby’s cry.

According to the story, in the sky there was a star that fell with a new light, leading a few Tibetans and others to the place where the Savior was born. Many people read this story and take it on trust as happening exactly this way, though stars do not fall or even slide down so suddenly. The story signifies that a huge halo of splendor illuminated the sky over the village when Jesus was born. This sign meant that He who was to overcome the darkness of evil and ignorance had taken birth—that He would spread the light of love in the hearts of men and in the councils of humanity.

Use and misuse of wealth and wisdom

Appearances of splendor and other signs heralding the dawning of an era are natural when incarnations of great masters happen on earth. Jesus would shatter the darkness that had enveloped the world, and the aura of light was a sign announcing the event. The masters arrive in answer to men’s prayers: “Thamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya [Lead us from darkness to light].”

If each one does his duty in the spirit of dedication, the light can illumine all, but if the doors of the heart are shut against the light, how can darkness disappear? You cannot sit back and expect a master to bring peace and joy to you. The incarnation comes to warn, to guide, to awaken, to lay down the path, and to shed the light of love on it. But man has to listen, learn, and obey with hope and faith.

There is a tale told of old that wisdom and wealth once quarreled loud and long about their relative importance. Wealth argued that without it, the body would be weak; the brain, hazy; and wisdom, a will-o’-the-wisp. Wisdom retorted that without it, man could not even distinguish wealth from poverty or know how to earn or use riches. The soul intervened and told them they were both equally important but only when properly used. Wealth without wisdom becomes an instrument of exploitation and tyranny; wisdom without wealth becomes mere fantasy and a bundle of blueprints. Use makes them worthwhile; misuse makes them disastrous.

It is like the knife in the hands of a maniac, which becomes an instrument for murder; in the hands of a surgeon, it becomes an instrument that saves lives. Are you doing good with your wealth? Are you benefiting others by means of your wisdom?—that is the test. This day, Christmas, when you celebrate the birth of Jesus, resolve to lead a life of loving service to the weak, the helpless, the distressed, and the disconsolate. Cultivate tolerance and forbearance, charity and magnanimity. Hold dear the ideals He laid down and practice them in your daily life.

Best way of celebrating Jesus’ Birth

The way in which Christmas is celebrated now shows how far men have moved away from Jesus’ ideals, how much ignominy they are heaping on His name. The midnight hour is revered; illumination is arranged; the Christmas tree is set up; and then the night is spent in drinking and dance. It is a day of holy bliss, but that bliss is reduced to the level of the poisoning excitement of intoxication!

Drink is so pernicious an evil habit that when man puts the bottle in his life, he himself gets into the bottle and cannot escape. First, man drinks wine; then, the wine drinks more wine; and finally, the wine drinks man himself. He is sunk and drowned in drink. Liquor destroys the humanity in man. How then can it develop the divinity in him? Man must dance in divine bliss; instead, he indulges in sensual dance as a deleterious substitute. Make your heart pure, your activities holy, and your feelings beneficial to all. That is the best way of celebrating the birth of Jesus.

Jesus announced the advent of Baba

At the moment when Jesus was merging in the supreme principle of Divinity, He communicated some news to His followers. Jesus’ statement was simple: “He who sent me among you will come again!” and He pointed to a lamb. The lamb was merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the sound it makes—ba-ba. The announcement was about the advent of Baba. “His name will be truth,” Jesus declared. Sathya means “truth.” Jesus said, “He will wear a robe of red, a blood-red robe. [Here Baba pointed to the robe He was wearing.] He will be short, with a crown [of hair].”

Jesus did not declare that He would come again. He said, “He who made me will come again.” That ba-ba is this Baba, and Sai (the short, curly-hair-crowned, red-robed Baba) has come. He is not only in this form, but in every one of you as the dweller in the heart. He is in your heart—short, with a robe the color of the blood that fills it.

The great axioms of Indian culture found in the Vedas (“God is the inner motivator of all beings” and “All this is enveloped in God, all this is Vasudeva, the Divine”)—are for everyone. This is the inner mystery of God incarnating in all. All are one; the One is all.

There is only one God; He is omnipresent.
There is only one religion, the religion of love.
There is only one caste, the caste of humanity.
There is only one language, the language of the heart.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 11