Published by A reading: For I am the Receiver and the Lord of every sacrifice…Who follow gods go to their gods; and whoso loveth Me cometh to Me. Whoso shall offer Me in faith and love a leaf, a flower, a fruit, water poured forth; that offering I accept, (that is) lovingly made with a pious will. Whate’er thou doest, eating or sacrificing, giving gifts, praying or fasting, let it all be done for Me, as Mine. So shalt thou free thyself from good and evil issue, so shalt (thou) come safe unto Me- when thou art quit of flesh- by faith and abdication joined to Me.
I am alike for all! I know not hate, I know not favour! What is made is Mine! But them that worship Me with love, I love; They are in Me, and I am in them!
This is from the great Indian poem, the “Bhagavad Gita” or “The Song of the Lord” the “Lord” in this case being Krsna. The “Bhagavad Gita” deals mainly with the effect that Krsna has on mankind during a great war between two ruling houses, the Pandus and the Kurus, which, if legend is to believed, took place about 1000 years before the birth of Buddha, that is about 1500 years before Jesus.
Krsna tells his friend, Arjuna, that he should not grieve over all the warriors that are about to die in the battle, no matter what side they are on, because Krsna, as Lord of all, knows that death is an illusion, and that it is only the outer shells of the warriors that will perish, the men themselves will live forever.
A side issue: The Bhagavad Gita is only a small part of that great Indian Epic, “The Mahabharata”, composed between 200 BC and 200 AD, and scholars agree that the events related occurred around 1500 BC. Late in the story both armies involved in the war throw their “terror weapons” to try to end the conflict. Here is what is written. “Two huge spheres of curling white fire were hanging like suns high in the air. Earth beneath began to crackle and burn; small pebbles and stones exploded, and the river steamed.” So here we have a description of nuclear weapons written 2000 years ago!
However the most important thing that Krsna says is that all prayers go to the one God, no matter what mankind calls Him; and that all gifts, when they are presented freely and piously to God will be accepted, resulting in great blessings being showered on the giver.
One God, no matter what we call Him.
One thousand years later, Siddhartha Gautama is born. The only son of a noble house in India. “One”, the wise men said, “who will rule the world, if He would stoop to rule; or save the world.”
Siddhartha grew up into a world of privilege, not knowing what it was to feel hunger or pain; not knowing about sickness, old age, or death until one day he went disguised into the local village. There he was confronted with all those things – he saw a villager sick and delirious with fever; he saw an old woman, grey with age; and finally he saw a funeral procession. In Sir Edwin Arnold’s poem, “The Light of Asia”, Siddhartha’s servant, Channa, tells Siddhartha about death, “This is the end that comes to all. He upon the pyre ate, drank, laughed, loved and lived, and liked life well. And then came – who knows? – and life was over and the man is dead. Here is the common destiny of flesh: The high and low, the good and bad, must die, and then, ‘t is taught, begin anew and live somewhere, somehow.”
This revelation is too much for Siddhartha, for now he knows that he, too, must die, and what is worse so must his beloved wife, Yasõdhara.
Siddhartha, at last, starts to consider the lot that is man’s. To live, to die, and then to be reborn to start the wheel of life turning yet again. He thinks “This is not right. If the Gods will not prevent this eternal round of birth, death and rebirth, then they are not good. And if they cannot prevent it, they are not Gods.”
And so Siddhartha leaves behind his life of luxury, and sets out to try to find the answer to the problem. After some years he does, indeed, find the answer – in the “Four Noble Truths” – that is: Existence is unhappiness. Unhappiness is caused by selfish craving. Selfish craving can be destroyed. It can be destroyed by following the “Eightfold Path”. That “Eightfold Path” is: Right Understanding; Purpose; Speech; Conduct; Vocation; Effort; Alertness; and Meditation.
In finding these answers Siddhartha becomes “The Buddha” the “Enlightened One”. It is a simple way of life, and as the Buddha said, one should always intend to walk the path.
And so, millions followed his example, and Buddhism spread both east and west with traders along the Silk Road – that great trade route that stretched from Palestine to China – so that in Palestine 500 years later, Jesus must have heard of Buddha’s teachings from those traders.
The teachings of Jesus hit the Jewish community like a thunderbolt. Here was someone who treated Scribes, Tax Collectors, Pharisees, Publicans, Samaritans, Prostitutes, Sadducees and all sorts with equal love and acceptance. He told people to pay Rome the taxes they asked for. He suggested that armed resistance to the Romans was counter productive, and a danger to their souls, and He even went so far as to heal the sick on the Sabbath! This could not continue, of course, and the Sanhedrin, the highest court of justice, and the Supreme Council in ancient Jerusalem soon managed to have Him arrested, and crucified. Very publicly crucified.
If the Sanhedrin thought that this would put a stop to the unrest, they were sadly mistaken, because Jesus was soon seen again, and so grew a new belief – one that was to outstrip both Krsna and Buddha; because where Krsna had shown us that all prayers go to the One God, and Buddha had shown us that material goods, could be a hindrance to our Spirituality; Jesus had shown us that death was the supreme illusion.
Most of the world’s religions had always said the soul was immortal, but now Jesus’ public death and public reappearance had proved it! This was the real reason for Jesus’ sacrifice – to prove to us that death is merely going from one form of existence to another. He did not die because we are such terrible “sinners”, and believing that He did removes our Personal Responsibility.
I believe that Jesus died because we were all so frightened of death we were afraid to truly live. He removed that fear, and that is why we should thank Him every day, for now we can truly live to our fullest potential; and every day, Spiritualism gives further proof, if any were needed, of the Love, Light, and Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the continuous existence of the Human Spirit.
