Posted on: 06 Aug 2016
Shri Anil asked: Padanamaskaram Swami
Kindly give Your explanations to following verses/parables taken from New Testaments of Bible
5. True and False Prophets [Matthew 7:15-20] 15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.]
Swami replied: A preacher is called as Guru with little or half knowledge and is very dangerous like a wolf covered by leather of sheep. This leather of sheep is spiritual knowledge related to God and by this external leather, you get attracted and approach the false preacher. The Guru strictly following the knowledge of human form of God (Satguru) is not dangerous since he is sheep inside and outside, following strictly the text like sheep. The wolf covered by leather of sheep is the false preacher, who follows the text of God externally and gives his own false interpretations as inner meanings that harm the receiver-soul, which is led to wrong path. Such false preacher suffers with a mixture of ignorance and ego, does not listen a real preacher due to ego and remains uncorrected. Such false interpretation misleads the devotee to loss here as well as there. Such false preacher aspires your service to him and this is the bad fruit. The concept of service to human form of God is also similar, but, such true preacher (Satguru) asks you to analyze His preaching carefully with sharp analysis before serving Him. Sometimes, the true preacher escapes the false preacher by very thin hair-split margin like Krishna escaping the Poundraka Vaasudeva by sharp margin. False preacher also does some miracles achieved by the grace of God through severe penance. Satan also has some miraculous powers, which are the unimaginable deeds indicating unimaginable God as their source. One has to distinguish Jesus from Satan through His unimaginable knowledge and His unimaginable love to devotees. Unimaginable knowledge, unimaginable love and unimaginable deed (miracle) are the three characteristics of God for identification. Miracle is for the beginner, knowledge and love are for advanced devotees. Even Ravana lifted Kailasa mountain, but, only Krishna could say the Gita and could show unimaginable love to Sudama and Gopikas. The tree gives finally the fruit, which is eaten by people. Similarly, the spiritual knowledge given by the preacher is the final fruit received by devotees. If the fruit is right knowledge, the preacher is Satguru. If the fruit is wrong knowledge, the preacher is false guru. The knowledge given alone leads you to right or wrong path. The Satguru also tests you by becoming sheep covered by the leather of wolf!
[6. True and False Disciples [Matthew 7:21-28] 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,]
Swami replied: Jesus is clearly stressing on right knowledge to be followed before practice and compares such devotee to a house built on rocky foundation. Similarly, a devotee based on wrong knowledge is like a house built on sand, which has to collapse. Here, the right knowledge projected by the human form of God is very important since it is the foundation, which decides the right path to reach right goal. Knowledge is the first and foremost step since right goal with right path is to be decided at the very outset. Even worldly matters are decided and acted so. This should be followed by force of firm decision and subsequently by practice. Though practice decides the fruit, the correctness of the practice is decided by correct spiritual knowledge verified by your sharp analysis. Both foundation and practice that alone give fruit are stressed here.
Miracles like driving away the ghosts are criticized since demons called as evildoers can also do such miracles. These demons escape the real human devotees and real human incarnation by the common similarity of doing miracle. Even Jesus ordered a ghost to leave a devotee. By this, Jesus and evil-doer cannot be one and the same since Jesus alone could preach such sharp spiritual knowledge!
[7. The Workers Are Few [Matthew 9:35-38] 35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”]
Swami replied: The plenty harvest indicates the highest fruit of nivrutti, but, the workers are very few since the devotees of nivrutti are very few. Such devotees of nivrutti reach the field of plenty harvest indicating Goloka.
Jesus became very much moved by seeing the lowest layer of humanity suffering with so many problems. This is the initial stage of devotion called as 'aarta bhakti' by the Gita. He cured their problems to attract the kids through chocolates. This step creates faith in God so that they will be converted into workers of God in future for propagation work. Such people converted into believers in God belong to the general initial step called as pravrutti.
[8. Matthew 10:26-33 26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.]
Swami replied: Jesus is stressing on frankness in the analysis of spiritual knowledge without any bias or fear. Just like a doctor cannot be obstructed from testing even the private parts of the body, the preacher should not hesitate to analyze any secret with open mind so that truth can be investigated without any partiality. Fear creates a limited boundary in the vast true knowledge as said in the Veda (atha tasya bhayam…). The non-vegetarian food of Jesus, stealing of butter by Krishna, etc. should be deeply analyzed to show the hidden true background so that misunderstandings and misinterpretations can be avoided. Ignorance of truth alone makes you to escape from the explanation of the truth. Some hide the truth and give false interpretation to cover the truth. Instead, truth explained with full background throws light on the special circumstances in which even a crime becomes exceptionally justified.
Jesus says that God is omniscient in knowing even the exact number of hairs present on your head. Hence, none can fool Him with false concepts and false prayers. Even a sparrow worthy of half penny is protected by the omnipotent God. All the souls are under the control of God undergoing enjoyment of benefits and difficulties as per the justice of cycles of their deeds.
Jesus refers one of His devotees, who will not acknowledge Him on facing problems. It is actually a test of the faith of the devotee. The problem is also created by God only like the question paper set by Him for your examination. When everything is normal, everyone praises God lifting Him to the sky! Same devotee denies even His acknowledgment in critical atmosphere!
[9. Matthew 10:40-42 40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”]
Swami replied: 1) Jesus is referring to the human incarnation on saying that anyone welcoming Him is welcoming God. This statement refers to the God component present in Him. 2) When He says that anyone welcoming a human being is also welcoming Him. This shows the human being component in Him. Thus, human incarnation is the result of merge of God and human being. 3) Anybody welcoming the prophet sent by God receives the blessing of that prophet only. Also, anyone welcoming a human incarnation as prophet only receives the reward of the level of prophet only and not of the level of God. 4) Welcoming a righteous person means a person following justice in pravrutti receiving reward of heaven. 5) A person working in the propagation of spiritual knowledge, if served by any person, such person will receive the reward as per his service.
[10. Matthew 11:11-15 11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist;yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.]
Swami replied: Jesus was referring John as a devotee blessed by God participating in the general ritual of baptism, which is only externally understood as the holy ritual. A devotee, who has understood the inner sense of baptism with the help of the spiritual knowledge of human incarnation, is certainly higher than John since such a devotee is present with God. Such a devotee is blessed by God since he has understood the inner concept of the ritual, which can be implemented in future by him. Such devotee is said to be the least, being in the theoretical stage before practice. Following the ritual in external sense in practical way is lower than knowing the inner sense of the ritual. The word 'least' indicates that at least the devotee has realized and accepted the inner sense before practising it.
Before John, the wrong prophets were completely on the side of wrong knowledge of the ritual in the external sense and hence are said to be violent. The followers of such prophets only crucified Jesus with violence. John was also doing the ritual in external sense but did not accept the wrong side of the external sense and hence was not violent. Therefore, John was appreciated by Jesus.
[11. Matthew 11:16-19 16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. ’But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”]
Swami replied: Jesus compared the followers of wrong prophets to children used in the front side of shops for calling others to visit the shop through the process of advertisement. This shows that how the ignorant people were misled and exploited for the selfish business of the wrong prophets. Jesus feels very bad of such ignorant masses unable to analyze to know the true knowledge. When Jesus preached the right spiritual knowledge (blowing pipe), these ignorant people did not practice (dance) since the sound from the pipe was not received by their ears. It means that nothing can be done with such masses due to lack of a trace of intelligence to be used in the analysis. Hence, Jesus is expressing immense pity for them. Such masses are always present in all the times. Here, intelligence means wisdom of common sense and not literacy and education. Even an illiterate can be wise and a literate can be foolish and blind.
Both Jesus and John were criticized by the traditionally blind followers. These people follow the tradition totally from A to Z as per the misinterpreted version given by their forefathers. No deviation is acceptable to them because they never analyze even a bit of the traditional practice. Sometimes, even if some practice is not found in the scripture, these blind people follow that blind tradition. Such blind scholars say that the total scripture said by God is not available since a part of it is missing, and this blind part of tradition existed in that missing part of the scripture (Anukta manyato graahyam). If that is the case, any wrong interpretation can be said to be present in the missing part of the scripture! These people further say that the entire traditional practice alone is the authority. If the traditional practice came from sages, who had perfect true knowledge of correct interpretations concluded by sharp analysis during long debates, there is no problem. In such case, either scripture or traditional practice is valid since both are one and the same. In long run, especially in the recent middle age, elders respected by youngsters happened to be absolute illiterate stupids of the true sense of the scripture and their selfish and egoistic misinterpretations masked the true interpretation of scripture. Today, the generations are left with such masking false interpretation of the scripture, which fear for any analysis and even for trace of deviation. This category represents the blind priests criticizing both John and Jesus and stands as the first type.
The second type represents saints like John, who started analyzing the part of blind practice of wrong knowledge. They have realized that the existing interpretation is wrong, but, were unable to give the correct interpretation. Such middle type of people have lot of hunger to receive the correct knowledge-food. This second type is criticised by the above first type because of the disobedience to the misinterpretation of scripture propagated as correct interpretation. The first type discourages any follower not to analyze what is said by God. Here the point is that we are not contradicting the scripture of God, but, only contradicting the wrong sense of the scripture. Wrong sense of the scripture cannot be the very scripture. If you say that forefathers gave such interpretation, there is no rule that every forefather is correct. The concepts of all forefathers of the devotee Prahlada were totally wrong. Prahlada did not follow the blind interpretation of his forefathers based on your argument. You have to analyze every interpretation of the scripture. If the interpretation is proved wrong, the forefathers, who gave that interpretation, were also wrong as far as that interpretation is concerned. Hence, the conclusion of the scripture is that the tradition propagated by the correct scholars of forefathers alone should be taken as authority (Shishtaachaarah pramaanam). The basis of all this is the sharp analysis, which alone can prove whether a tradition is right or wrong and thereby proving whether the forefathers, who propagated such tradition were right or wrong. John recognized the wrong interpretation and is waiting for the correct interpretation of the scripture to be given by Jesus, the human incarnation of God.
The third type is human incarnation like Jesus who gives the correct interpretation of the scripture. The first type becomes double enemy because the wrong interpretation is not only recognized as wrong but also rejected by right interpretation. Therefore, this double anger made the first type crucify Jesus. A wrong interpretation of the scripture is like loss and its correct interpretation is like profit. Loss is always compensated and the business affected by such loss is always fulfilled by the vast profit only. Hence, Jesus told that He came to fulfill what is said in the scripture. Jesus was criticized as tax collector since He preached the sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma phala tyaga of the Gita) or money to God's work. In fact, the first type was collecting same contributions from devotees to lead them to the liquid fire of the hell with blind and wrong interpretations. The true colour of the sacrifice appears only in the sacrifice of fruit of work and if one remains in theoretical devotion only throughout life aspiring for true practical fruit from God, such a devotee is a spiritual prostitute only. One day or other, the theoretical devotion should end in practical sacrifice of devotion. Jesus fixed the total sacrifice of fruit (as in the case of widow-beggar and in the case of rich man advised to sacrifice all his wealth) as the climax of Nivrutti or true spirituality. The partial sacrifice of fruit occupies the space below climax in Nivrutti. If the goal is total sacrifice, at least partial sacrifice will be done for God in Nivrutti. Even if the total or partial sacrifice of fruit is absent, which is to say that the devotee has come down below Nivrutti and entered the phase of pravrutti, at least, the devotee will not rob others' money through corruption. Today, you can see no human being without corruption of money like no metal can be seen without corrosion! Hence, if the climax of Nivrutti is kept as goal, at least, a lower stage in Nivrutti is expected or at the worst the perfectness in pravrutti should be seen. Almost all the humanity in the present time is below even perfect pravrutti, not to speak of Nivrutti and its climax! In this subject of sacrifice of fruit, the blind priests must be understood correctly and Jesus should not be misunderstood wrongly.