Jesus
Swami has said that Jesus announced himself as a messenger of God. He spent many years in austerities so that he could shower compassion and love on all humanity. Later, Jesus asked himself, “Am I just a messenger, or am I closely related to God, a part of God with the Divine as my essence?” Engaged in this inquiry, Jesus spent 12 long years wandering alone in deserts. At the end of this period, he returned to the society of men and announced, “I am the son of God.” [Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 14]
Man is like a seed. The seed sprouts, becomes a sapling, grows into a tree, and fulfills its destiny, offering flowers and fruits to the world. So, too, man progresses from childhood through adolescence into youth and middle age. When fully grown up, he has to justify his existence by offering to the world the flowers and fruits of good thoughts and deeds, while himself acquiring the fullness of wisdom. A bird has need of two wings; a cart must have two wheels. Without these, they are mortally handicapped.
Man, too, must have two types of knowledge—one to live on and one to live for. The one helps him to eke out his livelihood, and the other rewards him for having lived at all. The one is called jivanopadhi and the other, jivanaparamavadhi, the means of living and the end of living respectively. The one enables us to garner the material riches that make our lives comfortable and safe; the other answers the questions that haunt us and pressurize us for answers—wherefrom have we come? Whereto are we proceeding? Whence has this world originated, etc. No religion concerns itself with the first type of knowledge; all are interested in understanding the second type. Each of you has to pay attention to this second type even more than to the first, for it has a beneficial impact on the first.
Man has set down in all lands and communities certain rules and regulations in order to secure orderly and smooth running of his daily schedule of activities directed to the actual process of living. Since they have become part of the code of conduct, they are also described as ‘discipline.’ They are also subsumed under the basic principles of dharma [righteousness]. Dharma promotes peace and happiness, contentment and joy. In every community, there have appeared off and on great personalities who shaped and burnished the codes and adapted the details to the needs of the times.
What we must strive for today is not a new religion or a new society or a new code of morality; they are present already in each race and country. We have also the basic plans for spiritual training already laid down in most religions. But we need persons who have attained purity in all levels of consciousness. Man can reach perfect bliss only when his heart becomes free from envy, egoism, greed, and other evil traits. We need persons who can recognize and relish the recognition of the kinship and even the identity between man and man, as well as between society and society. They have to move beyond the bounds of the limited ‘I;’ they have to break loose from the entanglements of the senses. They have to jump over the battlements of the fort called ‘body’ and enter enthusiastically into the wide world beyond. From the narrow vision of ‘individual need’, he must voyage out into the broad vision of the ‘universal’.
When a drop of water falls into the ocean, it loses its narrow individuality, its name and form, and assumes the form, the name, and the taste of the ocean itself. If it seeks to live separate as a ‘drop’, it will soon evaporate and be reduced to non-existence. Each one must become aware that he is the same truth that is the truth of every-thing in the universe. It is reprehensible to stick to the low narrow paths of selfishness, envy, and greed for one’s whole lifetime . Make the heart big and the mind pure. Then only can peace and prosperity be established on earth.
This day is a holy day, the day on which Jesus was born. He announced himself as the Messenger of God. In fact, all humans are born as messengers of God. The sole purpose of this human career is to propagate the omnipresence of God and His might and glory. No one has incarnated for merely consuming quantities of food and catering to one’s senses. Human life is much more precious than that. That is why only man has been endowed with the capacity to appreciate beauty, truth, and goodness.
To acquire the awareness of the divine one need not journey to any special region or place. It is enough if the eye is turned inward. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the inner reality, the atma [soul] is described as ‘splendorous like a billion suns.’ But man has not become aware of the light and power within; he still flounders in the darkness of ignorance. The scriptures proclaim that men are amritasya putrah, the children of immortality. But, man is unaware of this glorious heritage. He feels he is mortal, his end is imminent, and his existence is temporary.
The scriptures also say that the atma, the real core of the individual, is the very embodiment of bliss, anandaswaroopa. But, man is blind to this truth; he invites sorrow and anxiety to hold mastery over him and discards the joy that awaits him. Every man is a messenger to men, entrusted with the task of spreading knowledge of the joy that is missed. If he misses this mission and fritters away his years in eating and mating, he only misuses the chance. He reduces himself to the level of beasts and birds. For, they do only that much and cannot aspire for more. If his level of life is as low as that of beasts in spite of his education,university degrees, etc. the more the shame. He who announced himself as messenger developed through the blossoming of divinity in him and the expansion of compassion and service activities into a stage when he declared that he was the Son of God. And, then, he rose to the status of ‘I and my Father are One’.
When one declares that he is the son of God, he becomes entitled to the paternal majesty and power. These he can claim only when he grows in himself the qualities that his father has and appreciates. As a result, he attains sayujya, or mergence, which leads him to assert, ‘I and my Father are One’. The scriptures say, Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati—He who knows Brahma becomes Brahma. Knowledge is power.
These three stages are referred to as dvaita, visishta-advaita, and advaita, and in Hindu thought. The Messenger has a Master; the two are basically two, and so this stage is dualism or dvaita. The Son and Father though two separate entities are bound by affection and kindred feelings and attitudes; they are like the whole and the part, the body and the limb. This stage is called visishta (qualified) Non-Dualism. And, when the Son and the Father are One, the stage is advaita, non-dualism.
Even a little innocent boy would be eager to advance from one grade to the next, higher, one. He would hate being in the same class, vegetating for years. So, what can we say of men with intelligence and discrimination satisfied with the attainment of the lower steps? Jesus passed through the entire series and inspired by his example, teaching all mankind to be generous and kind, detached and discriminating, and to bring light and love to all. He attracted people by his miracles and transformed them into apostles and exemplary servants of man.
You must realize that the divine current that flows and functions in every living being is the One and only. When you desire to enter the mansion of God, you are confronted by two closed doors—the itch to praise yourself and the itch to defame others. The doors are bolted by envy, and there is also a huge lock that prevents entry, egoism. So, if you are earnest, you have to resort to the key—prema (love)—and open the lock; then, remove the bolt, and throw wide open the doors that were closed. True education has to train you in this difficult operation.
You undergo training in various subjects of study; but the crown and crest of all subjects of study is adhyatmic vidya or the training of the inner consciousness—the antahkarana. People desirous of bathing in sacred rivers are advised by Thyagaraja, the famous mystic, poet, and singer, to bathe in the ocean, for all rivers pour their waters into the sea and a bath in the ocean means bathing in the waters of all the rivers at the same time. So, too, the atma-vidya, if it is mastered, is the key to all knowledge. It teaches us that which if known all else is known. It reveals to us that the One is in the many and that the many is really One.
Isavasyam idam sarvam, all this is enveloped by God, as the shruti [scripture] declares. Sadhana [spiritual effort] is the name for the mental discipline and intellectual effort to realize this unity. Jesus sacrificed his life, poured out his blood, to instill love and compassion in the heart of man, so that he may be happy when others are happy and sad when others are sad. It is not by festivity and fun that you can celebrate Christmas; celebrate it rather by resolving to put into practice at least one of the ideals he enunciated, or endeavoring to reach at least one of the goals he placed before man.
Let me call upon you to give up, in memory of this holy day, two evils from your mind: self-praise and scandalizing others. Adopt one habit as yours: the habit of loving service to the distressed. If you spend all your time and energy merely piling up worldly comfort and sensual delight, you are disgracing this human existence. Life is not to be spent in eating; eating is only for the purpose of living. Have a sense of proportion in these things. It is easy to spout a billion words advising others what to do and how to behave. But it is very hard to practice a billionth of what you say.
You consider this habitation of yours as your body; no; it is the temple of God. God resides therein. Keep it clean, fresh, and fragrant through developing compassion and love. Use the temple of God only for holy thoughts, words, and deeds. Do not demean the instrument by using it for low, trivial, and unholy tasks. Wherever you are, whatever you do, have this resolution steady and strong.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1977
