Just a few centuries before our brilliant and compassionate Siddhartha Gautama sat under the Bodhi tree to meditate on ways of remedying the impact of Karma, God made another startling progressive revelation: a prophecy concerning Yeshu,
“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”
God, out of deep love for us, was revealing the remedy for Karma in Yeshu’s ultimate sacrifice: that he would take on the punishment we all deserve, and free us from the bondage of Karma and Samsara permanently!
Some believe the teachings of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) are close to the Nir-Guna-Brahma concept (God is incomprehensible), which goes back a few millenniums before Buddha. According to this teaching, God’s attributes are incomprehensible to humans; however, there is one utterance or word that is used to refer to this form of God. It is OM (pronounced AUM). It is believed that OM is the primal vibration. According to this view, OM was never created, it existed before the creation of the universe, and it exists today and will continue to exist when the universe disappears. In fact, OM symbolizes the infinite, eternal, incomprehensible God.
OM has a very significant place in our culture: our Sanskrit chants usually begin with OM to give primary importance to this infinite eternal God. In the Gnana marga (Path of self-knowledge), some practitioners meditate on OM in an attempt to gain God-Consciousness. OM has regained its importance in the culture and it has become the icon of Hinduism. I believe this is a direct result of our hunger to know God and experience God personally. I am very thankful for such a time as this.
How can we know and experience this incomprehensible universal reality: God? That is where Yeshu Jayanti (Yeshu’s Birthday) fits in. God, who created the stars and planets, wanted the East to know about this birth event. He even gave strong clues about Yeshu Jayanti through astronomy. Through the Bethlehem star, people from the East came to know of this birth and then followed it to see this Yeshu, after His birth. My prayer to God is that despite my limitation to describe this mystery, you will personally connect back with our creator God by unwrapping His interactive Gift. Will God, who is acutely aware of even our secret thoughts, ignore our internal plea? No way! However, there is a true barrier that we have to deal with before we can begin this relationship with God.
In our natural state, we are disconnected from God. This is also recognized by the Eastern teachings. Let’s sift through the basics very quickly. Hinduism is like an ocean as it is constantly evolving, but even the mighty ocean is just made out of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. In the same way, the root of all problems according to our cultural teachings can be traced back to two concepts; Karma and/ or Maya. Karma is believed to be the binding cycle of cause and effect (samsara). Maya is the illusion we live in, the ignorance of our true nature. The great news is, God’s recovery mechanism addresses both Karma and Maya soundly.
My dear brothers and sisters, Yeshu Jayanti (Birth of Yeshu) occurred for our benefit. God entered humanity so that we humans have an opportunity to comprehend the incomprehensible to the best of our abilities. Yeshu, who always existed (the infinite eternal God, WORD, similar to OM), entered humanity on Yeshu Jayanti, to become understandable. God revealed to us that He is exactly like Yeshu in nature. Further, Yeshu became human, so that He could become our prayaschit (compensation) for humanity’s Karma. In order to accept God’s offer to us, we have to break out of the Maya (illusion) we are in. Somehow we are under the Maya (Illusion) that we can reach this infinite God with human strength. Will you allow God to shed some light to dispel this Maya? If you do that, you will open up the barriers on your end to receive God’s forgiveness for your Karma and become ready to receive the True Christmas Gift.
You ask, ‘what is this True Christmas Gift?’. Well, after Yeshu died as our prayaschit – making the Way for us to unite with God, He resurrected and gave us a Gift. This Gift is interactive and is the Means by which we connect with God to become ready for God-Consciousness. This Gift He gave us is the Pavitra-Atma (Holy Spirit), who is God Himself, who brings Spiritual life into our Atma (spirit).
In our natural state, our Atma is disconnected from God. But when we acknowledge Yeshu’s death as our prayaschit and receive God as our internal Guru, God begins to interact with our Atma to dispel Maya. Through surrender to God’s way, we allow the internal Guru to gradually transform us to be like Yeshu. This mystery, due to our own biases about Yeshu, was hidden from our culture for centuries. Perhaps some of us have to overcome our religious bias to become ready to receive this Gift. The moment we allow for this transaction to occur, our Atma is granted Jeevan Mukti (Eternal Life), securing Moksha (salvation) in this lifetime. Yeshu is universal, and not bound by religion. Hence this Gift is also for those of us from the East.
On God’s redemptive path, God has become the Way (prayaschit), and the Means (internal Guru) for us to attain Mukti. Instead of human effort to reach God, can we yield ourselves to God’s effort to reach us? Examining this from a Vedantic perspective, is this sufficient Veda (knowledge) for you to reach the Anta (end), by taking this step of faith? Meaning, expressing to God your willingness to accept God’s way in a silent prayer. If you do, you will connect with your Creator.
This is not a call to join a religion or a sect. Perhaps this Christmas, you will unwrap your true Christmas Gift and begin your spiritual journey – a new life with a clean slate! God will satisfy your spiritual hunger today!
If you want to know more feel free to write to us at YeshuSamaj
