He Whom Christ Announced

“Religions arise from the minds of good men, who crave to make all men good; they strive to eliminate evil and cure the bad. They are many, since they have to be adjusted to the individuals, their activities, their professions and roles, their character and characteristics. The individual has to start observing the limits and laws laid down and derive joy and strength thereby. 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 benefit thereby.

It is therefore appropriate that the birth day of Jesus, who felt the need to save mankind and who strove to achieve it, is celebrated; but the celebration must take the form of adherence to the teachings, loyalty to the principles, practicing the disciplines and experiencing the awareness of the Divine that He sought to arouse.

These days the world is deriving satisfaction in mere words and in witnessing clever ruses designed to cover up one’s faults. The birthdays of the Great are honored by 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 for the West only. To accept one of them as one’s own and discard the rest as belonging to others is a sign of pettiness. Christ, Rama, Krishna—they are for all men everywhere. The various limbs and organs together form a body; various states 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 sustenance of love, endowed by Divine grace, has to circulate in every part of the body, helping it to function in unison. The sustenance of love, endowed by Divine grace, has to circulate in every state and community to make the world live in peace and joy. If this truth is realized, there will arise no idea of difference.

The moving water of a river has the moon in its depths; the still water of a lake has also 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, 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 maya (illusion), cause and effect. The moon reflected in the placid face of the lake is the yogi, the saint, who has attained balance, equipoise, peace, dwelling in the One. The real moon in the sky is the Eternal Witness, the Absolute, the Primal Principle. Christ spoke of these three, when he made, one after the other, 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 beyond dualities and attained balance, he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ Realizing that these two are but reflections, and that the real moon is the Witness in the sky, that he too is the formless nameless Absolute, he declared, towards the end of his life, ‘I and my Father are ONE.’

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 Ananda(bliss). He exhorted people by precept and example to cultivate the virtues of charity, compassion, forbearance, love and faith. These are not separate and distinct qualities, they are only the many facets of the Divine in man, which he has to recognize and develop.

People talk of the sacrifice of Christ as evidenced by His crucifixion. But He was surrounded and bound and crowned by the crowd who captured Him with a crown of thorns, 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. Let us pay attention 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. He willingly sacrificed the desires with which the body torments man; this is sacrifice greater than the sacrifice 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 got broken into schisms on various counts; but the life of Christ is a lesson in unity. When Christ was on the cross, ill-feelings towards 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 was followed by another admonition, ‘Death is the Dress of Life.’ As one casts off the 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 the lamentations to which man is heir.

The lives of such personalities are lived out in order to establish the welfare of humanity, the prosperity and peace of the world, and individual liberation from bondage to sensual desires and passions. This is illustrated by the strange phenomena that occur at the time of their advent. It is believed that when Christ was born there were such manifestations. The ruler of the realm had ordered a census, and each 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; the pains started midway. They 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.

And, the story says, there was a star in the sky, which fell with a new light, and this led a few Tibetans and others to the place where the Savior was born. This story is read and taken on trust by many, though stars do not fall or even slide down so suddenly. What the story signifies is this. There was a huge halo of splendor illuminating the sky over the village when Christ was born. This meant that He who was to overcome the darkness of evil and ignorance had taken birth, that He will spread the light of Love in the heart of man and the councils of humanity. Appearances of splendor and other signs to herald the era that has dawned are natural when incarnations happen on earth. Jesus was to shatter the darkness that had enveloped the world and the aura of light was a sign that announced the event. Masters arrive in answer to man’s prayer, Tamaso maa jyotir gamaya (Lead us from darkness unto 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 the incarnation to bring peace and joy into you. The incarnation comes to warn, to guide, to awaken, to lay down the path, and shed the light of love on it. But man has to listen, learn and obey with hope and faith.

This day, Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Christ, resolve to lead the lives of loving service, to the weak, the helpless, the distressed, the disconsolate. Cultivate tolerance and forbearance, charity and magnanimity. Hold dear to the ideals He laid down and practise them in your daily lives. The ways in which Christmas is being celebrated now show how far men have moved away from those 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 ananda, but the ananda 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, 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? One must dance in Divine bliss; instead, sensual dance is indulged in as a deleterious substitute! Make your hearts pure, your activities holy, and your feelings beneficial to all. That is the best way of celebrating the birth of Christ.

There is one point that I cannot but bring to your special notice today. In the moment when Jesus was emerging in the supreme principle of Divinity, He communicated some news to His followers, which has been interpreted in a variety of ways. The statement itself has been manipulated and tangled into a conundrum. The statement of Christ is simple. ‘He who sent me among you will come again,’ and He pointed to a lamb. The lamb is merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the voice—Ba-Ba; the announcement was the advent of Baba. ‘His name will be Truth,’ Christ declared. Sathya means truth. ‘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).’ The lamb is the sign and symbol of Love. Christ did not declare that He will 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, is come. He is not only in this form, but He is in every one of you, as the dweller in the heart. He is there, short, with a robe of the color of the blood that fills it.

The great axioms of Bharatiya culture found in the Vedas—Iswara sarva bhuthaanaam, Isaavaasyam idam sarvam, Vasudeva sarvam idam—God is the inner motivator of all beings; all this is enveloped in God, all this is Vasudeva, the Divine—are to be interpreted in this way, that the blood-red robed Baba or lamb is in everyone. This is the inner mystery of incarnation. 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.”

Excerpted from Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 8