Posted on: 04 Mar 2021
[Śrī Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! Please could You answer this question raised by a person with whom I was discussing over the internet. The person says that in the Bible (John 1:1 & 2), it is stressed that the Word (Jesus) was ‘with’ God. Does this not show that Jesus was with God and that He is not God? At Your Divine Feet –anil]
Swami replied: The word Jesus means the medium with which God merged perfectly. Due to the perfect merging of God with the medium, you can say that Jesus is God and you can equally say that Jesus is with God.
[Śrī Anil asked: Could You please answer this question raised in an online discussion? If the Holy Trinity were true, and Jesus were God, why did Jesus say “Father, forgive them for they know not, what they do”, upon being crucified? Should He not have said, “I forgive you for you know not what you do”? Is Jesus really God?]
Swami replied: The Human Incarnation behaves as God Himself or as the son of God or as the messenger of God, as per the level of the people receiving His knowledge. Those who crucified Jesus belonged only to the third level and hence, Jesus prayed to God to forgive those cruel people. Had Jesus said that He is forgiving them, they would only laugh at Him, because of the low level of their spiritual understanding.
[Śrī Anil asked: Could You please answer this question raised in an online discussion? How did Jesus’ death take away your sin? If you kill someone, me dying for you does not mean that you are forgiven? ]
Swami replied: You should not take the literal meaning everywhere. If a sinner is given the confidence that his past sins are cancelled due to the suffering of Jesus, the sinner might get reformed. He might not commit any sin in the future. Once he is fully reformed, as proved by his non-doing of sins throughout his life, the sins committed by him in the past get cancelled. This is because the punishment for the sin is only meant for reformation. Once the reformation is complete, there is no further purpose of the punishment. Thus, the person’s sins get indirectly cancelled upon knowing that Jesus suffered and died for his sins. One way or the other, the final result is same, which is that the person’s sins get cancelled. The final result is important and not how the result was attained.
[Śrī Anil asked: Could You please answer this question raised in an online discussion? How could Christ forgive a woman who had committed adultery, but not forgive men who did the same? Is it not worse to forgive only the woman, if God has made women less sexual than men?]
Swami replied: The woman who had committed the sin surrendered to God. Hence, God excused her, asking her to never repeat the sin. The non-repetition of the sin is the most important step. The sinful men did not realize this and they did not surrender to God. When even the first step of realization was absent in them, where is the possibility of excusing them? The surrendered woman promised that she would not repeat the sin. This is the difference between the men and the woman, in the above case. There is no question of the gender of the soul in the view of God.
[A devotee’s question brought to Swami by Śrī Anil]
Swami replied: The term ‘Son of God’ is only one of the interpretations or views of the Human Incarnation. This view is suitable to middle-level devotees. Actually, God Himself came in the name and form of Jesus to undergo crucifixion, so that His programme of melting the rocky hearts of cruel devotees could be accomplished.
[A devotee’s question brought to Swami by Śrī Anil]
Swami replied: The scriptures of religions written in ancient times only need to be interpreted in a manner suitable for present times. The basic subject remains one and the same, in all times. The method of presentation alone changes from time to time.