Jesus The Christ
You know how much I love to speak about the Christ and on this day, it is a joyful day for me as we remember the birthday of this very special being. His short life in the world was remarkable. So much so that after two thousand years, we are still remembering him. He made the ultimate sacrifices. He dared to challenge the forces of the day and his life ended up a sacrifice.
One will always ask, ‘If Jesus was such a holy one and connected to the Divine, then why should he have been killed?’ When you understand the deeper meaning, much more was achieved by his sacrifice than would have been achieved otherwise. By giving up his life, people became more aware of their sinfulness and their negative qualities. And throughout the ages they have being confessing and being unhappy about their sins and when they take refuge in his consciousness, they feel cleansed. His sacrifice was such a powerful sacrifice. When we think of Gandhi or Martin Luther King, it is no different. We remember them as spiritual heroes and they continue to inspire us by holding on to their principles and not giving up.
On this special day, it is more important for what Jesus stood for; he was a being of such tremendous love. He walked as a simple person. We have deified him but he was also a man; he walked in a body. Some say if Christ would have come today, we would not recognise him because he would be too simple having the form of a man. After two thousand years, we have deified him so we don’t think of him as a man. But if he were to come back in a form of a man, we would disbelieve. But, he walked on the earth as a man.
I read where Gandhi asked a little person to pinch him and said, ‘See I am real’; he wanted to make the point that he was human. It was said that Jesus was fully divine, which means living in that pure awareness and he was fully human. The shortest sentence in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept,’ and human beings weep. Jesus wept; Jesus cursed the fig tree; Jesus cried that the cup be taken away from him; Jesus said on the cross ‘Why hast Thou forsaken me?’ It showed human moments. That which is divine is always able to embrace humanity. They can cry, they can display human emotions; they don’t have to, they don’t need to, but they can and when they do, we feel closer to them. We feel that they are part of us and that is such a beautiful thing.
When we see these divine beings being human, they cry with us and they show qualities like we have then we feel that we too can achieve this; that we too could be divine. That is the wonderful Leela or play that Jesus manifested.
When I think of Jesus, I think of love. Christ for me is not the merriment that we see; it is the love, the giving and the Christ spirit, that selfless and loving spirit. That is what Christmas is for me. I hope today you will remember that.
I love to give the simple teachings of Jesus, which is so powerful. You don’t need any other. Jesus said, ‘I give you these commandments.’ and on these hang all the laws and all the prophets. He said, ‘Love God with your whole heart, your whole mind and your whole soul’; that means your mental being, your emotional being, your physical being, your intellectual being; with your whole being absorbed in God; feel the presence within you and see the presence of God everywhere. That is what he is was saying and he made it more concrete when he said, ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ This is so sweet because this is how he lived.
You know that this is not easy to practice. In the year after his birth 2006, we are still practising this. ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’ I believe it can only happen when we really begin to practice the first commandment he gave: ‘To love God with your whole being,’ only then you can really love your neighbour as yourself because then you will see God in your neighbour. Those two commandants I never forget; they are deep inside of me. People may think that they are easy to practice but it is very difficult.
To love God with your mind, means that your mind has to be given up to God; it means that your mind has to be filled with pure, loving and positive thoughts. Isn’t that a challenge? To give your heart to God means that you must love God more than anything else, not money, not house, not car, they must not come before God. You can see when you wake up in the morning what you go for, the food, the job, the worry and God is forgotten; God is somewhere every Sunday. He is not in every moment, not as soon as you wake up in the morning.
When you really love God and God has priority in your life, the moment you wake up, you will say, ‘Thank You God.’ That would be your first thought; when you get some money in your pocket, ‘Thank You God’; when you get food to eat, ‘Thank You God’; when you have good friends, ‘Thank You God’. ‘Thank You God, Thank You God’; that is when God really becomes the priority; that is when your heart really is absorbed in God. Jesus said to love God with your whole being and this is the way to love God with your whole being. We are still practising this commandment in 2006 after his birth.
What a beautiful being he was and he is because the consciousness of Jesus is still with us. Let us remember him today and let us remember him for what he stood for; let us try to touch his love and to express his love. He was such a beautiful being. Just to think of him is to be filled with light. Jesus himself said, ‘Where two or more of you are gathered in my name, there I am in your midst.’ So, as we remember him today, that consciousness would be with us.
Have a wonderful day everyone, may the Christ Consciousness in you manifest its love and make your day beautiful and bright. God bless you everyone.
