Posted on: 10 Jul 2016
Shri Anil asked: Kindly give Your explanations to following verses/parables taken from New Testaments of Bible written by St. Mathew. Some of the verses are stand alone verses giving enough understanding still Your commentaries on those are requested for the benefit of all devotees.
[2. The Temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11)
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”
5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command His angels concerning You’; and
‘On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; 9 and he said to Him, “All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” 11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.
(Kindly explain the significance of above incident.)]
Swami replied: Jesus was in penance for God on the hill for 40 days without taking even a piece of bread. He was not hungry because He stopped taking bread not by force. He was immersed in the knowledge of details of God and subsequently in the love (devotion) to God. It was absorption by theoretical knowledge and theoretical devotion by which the hunger and thirst were not felt at all. Whenever you are strongly interested in an item like cinema, you forget hunger and thirst. You are not aware of mosquitoes and blood bugs sucking your blood present in your seat in the cinema hall! In the place of cinema, if God is present as the object, it is called as penance. As you are absorbed in the cinema in a natural way, you must be absorbed in God similarly in a natural way without any external compelling force like fulfilling your desire by the devotion to God. The best word to be used here is attraction. Concentration is done by force also. The force of attraction should be in the object. The cinema is attracting you and all the attraction force is in the cinema, not in you. Similarly, the divine personality of God (personality means energetic or human incarnation of God since the personality of unimaginable God remains unimaginable). Jesus was absorbed totally in the divine personality of Father of heaven, who is the energetic incarnation of unimaginable God. The attraction force existing in the divine personality of Father of heaven made Jesus forget His hunger and thirst. If you fast on a political issue, the force of attraction on the issue exists in your heart and not in the inert issue. Such fasting is not natural and is maintained on your force and rigidity. In such top most level of penance, actually, conversation with God takes place. Hence, Jesus told that a true devotee forgets hunger and thirst by the words (conversation) of God. You experience this practically when you are talking with a person and get absorbed in his words focusing the truth. You do not feel hunger and thirst even though the time for taking food passed away long back. This is the meaning of the statement referred by Jesus that one does not live simply on bread but also lives on the word of God coming from 'mouth'. The word mouth indicates the human form of God preaching the spiritual knowledge either in the phase of matter or in the phase of inert energy as medium associated with awareness (human incarnation or energetic incarnation).
Satan is the ego and ignorance mixed together present in almost all the human beings. This Satan always brings doubts to the heart and does not allow the right analysis. Doubting is not bad since you should not believe everything blindly. After the doubt, analysis should come. Satan is tempting Jesus to jump down from a long height saying that God will protect Him, if He is a real devotee. This is doubting the existence of God. It amounts to testing the very existence of God. Jesus already did penance, which is very sharp analysis about God for a long time that is to be projected before the world attained by Him without food, water and sleep. Those 40 days were equal to 40 years in our time scale of normal life attending the discussion on God for maximum time. After such long analysis on God, if you are not sure of the existence of God, Who is to be always tested by the miracle, you will always remain as the doubting Thomas and not as Jesus. After the stage of analysis, the stage of firm decision should come in which one should not go again to the beginning point of the first stage. Hence, the suggestion of Satan was simply rejected, which can apply only to doubting Thomas and not to Jesus. This gives the message to devotees that once you decided after a long and deep analysis, you should not go on doubting and testing God throughout your life till the last minute. Take long time before taking the decision so that you have to eliminate several false entities escaping the real goal just by hair split margin. But, one day or other, you must come to the stage of firm decision before your life ends (Samshayaatmaa vinashyati… Gita).
Satan showed several attractions asking Jesus to develop the ultimate and unique bond with him so that Jesus can serve him with total surrender and sacrifice. Here, Satan represents all these worldly bonds showing false and momentary attractions to bind the soul and bend it as the servant to such bonds. In the illusion of these false worldly bonds, the soul is doing even horrible sins, which establish that the soul is made a slave to such bonds. Jesus referred these worldly bonds elsewhere by saying that unless one hates these worldly bonds, he/she cannot become His disciple. Here, Jesus asked Satan to go away at this stage, which shows His hatred to the Satan.
[3. Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12)
1Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.]
Swami replied: Jesus is consoling the devotees, who underwent difficulties and mocking from their families, friends, relatives etc., while they are involved in the knowledge, devotion and service of God. Certainly, some loss in terms of energy, time, health, wealth etc., occurs in the service of God. Actually, the Satan staying in your mind generates negative ideas regarding your sacrifice in the divine service. While you are doing some divine service to God, your mind suddenly generates an idea, which makes you to think “oh! I am involved in this work for a long time while I have to do many other worldly works! I forgot those worldly works as I am trapped by this foolish useless work!!” Like this, the unseen Satan will generate such negative ideas lowering the importance of God. I assuredly tell the Satan and all of you also, who yield to Satan's negative ideas “Oh! Fool Satan! Oh souls fooled by Satan! I declare that if you are not yielding to Satan and continue the service to God without any disturbance and worry, I once again surely tell that God will accomplish all your works in a fraction of second and you know that you can't finish even one work even in your whole lifetime if you neglect God for the sake of this world”. This is the essence of the speech of Jesus delivered to people. This speech applies not only to the devotees suffered in the work of God, but also to the ordinary people, who are not devotees and are suffering in the world based on their intensive sins that yield emergent fruits here itself before the death.
He is inviting the normal human beings also to become devotees of God, get reformed by non-repetition of sin so that the file of sins including intensive sins is burnt once for all. Even in Pravrutti, in which you receive results by your actions, you must be grateful to God since God is awarding the fruits. Don’t you show respect to the chancellor of the university while giving you the gold medal? Will you disrespect him saying that you got the gold medal by your hard work only and hence the chancellor need not be respected? When such ego enters your brain, you will be certainly undisciplined, do intensive sins and get severe punishments here itself. By these statements, Jesus is attracting the children to come to the school by offering chocolates in the form of consolation. This is inevitable in the beginning stage, where the defects are rectified by defective ways only. The Veda also introduces worship of God through sacrifices by which, the Veda says, that the desires can be fulfilled by doing such sacrifices and this is called as Kamya Bhakti or devotion to God for fulfilling one's desires (Svarga kaamo yajeta… Veda). In this speech of Jesus both ordinary people as beginners and devotees in advanced stage were addressed and were consoled.
[4. Salt and Light(Matthew 5:13-16)
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.]
Swami replied: Jesus is referring to the salt that lost its taste, which cannot be revoked back. This refers to the devotee, who lost devotion and became atheist. A devotee turned to atheist will never become a devotee again. The reason is that an atheist unaware of devotion may become devotee after tasting the sweet devotion. A devotee, who tasted the devotion already, should not become an atheist. If the devotee becomes an atheist, it is the case of a demon only. A demon worships God through severe penance and gets several miraculous powers from God to become egoistic and declare that he is God. Such a demon will not become a devotee again since he was already a devotee in the past. Such demon cannot be reformed back and should be punished to suppress his power so that the society is not harmed by him.
The disciple is compared to the light present on the hill that is seen by all. This is the case of the devotee very much interested in the propagation and uplifted by God. A lamp on the stand shows a disciple of middle level doing part time divine service. A lamp kept in the bowl indicates a devotee studying the spiritual knowledge for his personal salvation only and not doing any propagation. Jesus advises the disciples to propagate the divine knowledge that glorifies God and not for personal fame.
[5. The Fulfillment of the Law(Matthew 5:17-20)
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.]
Swami replied: Jesus is referring about God's commandments framed as ethical scripture for the smooth running, stability and peace of the world. This is called as Pravrutti and here personal devotion to God (Nivrutti) is not at all necessary except little basic devotion or respect to God, which reminds you that you are not the atheist. Jesus is explaining the rewards in heaven if one follows justice in strict sense or if one resists injustice in this world. Big rewards are given for doing good works. Small rewards are given for not doing bad works also. Bad works push any soul to the hell. Heaven and hell exist on this earth also for the intensive deeds. If you neglect the divine law, immersed in high level devotion, the law will take its own course of action and any amount of devotion can't save you from hell. When you are not listening the commandment of God, which is the foundation of devotion, how can you claim yourself as a devotee of God? You do not obey the order given by God and you say that you are loving God very much! How this is possible? How can the castle stand above the ground, if its foundation is destroyed? Pravrutti is foundation of Nivrutti castle. Actually, God comes for the single purpose of Pravrutti only. Pravrutti is compelled on all human beings by God. If you violate Pravrutti, God becomes furious. Even if you totally neglect Nivrutti, God will not mind at all about your negligence to Nivrutti. Nivrutti is personal affair of God in which God is not interested and the soul is only interested. You should not misunderstand that God is not interested in the affair of personal love and hence God can be treated as a stone! Once you are interested in God, God gets million times of interest in you. If you walk one step to Him, He will walk thousand steps to you. In this line, there is only starting trouble of the engine on the side of God. Once you start the engine, you will be astonished at its speed! Therefore, in the initial stage, God always concentrates on Pravrutti and discourages Nivrutti so that you or the public should not blame God when Nivrutti clashes with Pravrutti. Here, there is no reference to Nivrutti at all. Only Pravrutti is emphasized by God to run His office in smooth way with peaceful atmosphere.
[6. Oaths[Matthew 5:33-37]
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.]
Swami replied: Taking oath on God is not wrong in the case of a true devotee. He cannot find a better proof or better witness than God for his truthfulness. Up to this, it is alright. But, based on this activity of a true devotee, false devotees (internally atheists) also started taking oaths on God and even on self, issues etc. These hidden atheists feel that the oath will not harm themselves or their issues. They also take oath on God since God is not existing in their real view. Even if God exists and harmed by oath, they do not mind since God is not related to them being an outsider. Hence, the liars neither believe in God nor believe in the process of taking oath since oath is also a false concept for them. When a sincere devotee on one side is taking oath on God or self or issues etc., and a liar on the other side is taking the same oath, who is to be believed? The judge gets confused by this. In fact, the acting of liar is superior than the natural state of the true devotee. Such acting influences judge more than the real expression of the real devotee and the judge may be trapped by the liar. Hence, this process of taking oath should be totally eradicated in such present context. The truth and lie are to be decided by sharp analysis only and not based on oath. Jesus brought out this theory in view of many liars taking oaths. He is not against the true devotee taking oath on God with pure and sincere heart.
The devotee means by oath that what he speaks is perfect truth since he can never tell a lie in the name of God. This is the spirit of the real devotee. The process of oath can be valid very much in case all the people in this world are true devotees of God. In such case, no human being will tell a lie in the name of God and truth can be easily detected. But, the situation of the world is quite different as the times changed from Krutayuga to this Kaliyuga. Jesus is eradicating this process of taking oath in the context of the present time of Kaliyuga. This process of taking oath existed from the beginning of creation since in the earlier times, none took a false oath on God. The reason was that everybody is highly devoted to God and also in the latter times even if the devotion decreased, the fear for God existed. Therefore, this process of oath was successful in finding out the truth since love or fear or love and fear for God existed till recent times up to the end of Dwaparayuga. Therefore, we should not find any contradiction between the present statement of Jesus and the ancient tradition in which the process of taking oath existed. You should never take any statement as universal for all times and for all regions. Of course, there are certain basic concepts, which are true in all times and in all regions. But, there are certain other concepts, which are applicable to a particular context only and should not be generalized to the entire universe for all times. You have to use sharp analysis in differentiating one type of statement from another type of statement.