Am I going to get into trouble for this?
Watching Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ', I suddenly thought of something, and I'm sure I'm not the first person..
Watching it, I was seeing how the people who crucified him viewed Jesus Christ. It's not that outrageous for them to have thought Jesus Christ was a bit of a nutter, really. After all, he was a carptenter's son who claimed to be the son of god, who claimed to perform miracles, who wanted to change the existing order into something quite different, in accordance with rules of conduct that he had come up with himself...
I thought to myself, let me look at this from both sides. Being a regular person from that time and era, I might've thought this man was a bit of a lunatic, though I probably wouldn't have thought he was dangerous and fit to be nailed to a cross, left to die. But I can see why they did that. He was a huge threat to their power, and in those days, that's how they punished people.
And from Jesus Christ's point of view, I would've felt very alone. Maybe he really did believe he was the son of God. Maybe it was a sort of madness. Or maybe it was a ploy he used to teach his beliefs and spread his word. Maybe he was just a regular good guy who used being the son of god to make people listen, and whose greatness lay in the fact that he wanted to change the bad things in the world. And maybe his disciples recognised that he was a wonderful, kind, gentle, self-less person with good intentions for the world, and loved him for it..and stuck with the whole "son of god" story because it seemed to be working in order to get to the people.
They say that history hints at the existence of people like Jesus Christ, Ram and Sita etc. If this is true, isn't it possible that they were just great people, like Gautham Buddha, or Gandhi. Not gods but simply great people. Maybe 2000 years from now, Gandhi will be considered a god, someone who "purified untouchables" when what he really did was try to give them a respectable status...I dont know if I'm making complete sense, but d'you know where I'm coming from?
Just a thought.
Watching it, I was seeing how the people who crucified him viewed Jesus Christ. It's not that outrageous for them to have thought Jesus Christ was a bit of a nutter, really. After all, he was a carptenter's son who claimed to be the son of god, who claimed to perform miracles, who wanted to change the existing order into something quite different, in accordance with rules of conduct that he had come up with himself...
I thought to myself, let me look at this from both sides. Being a regular person from that time and era, I might've thought this man was a bit of a lunatic, though I probably wouldn't have thought he was dangerous and fit to be nailed to a cross, left to die. But I can see why they did that. He was a huge threat to their power, and in those days, that's how they punished people.
And from Jesus Christ's point of view, I would've felt very alone. Maybe he really did believe he was the son of God. Maybe it was a sort of madness. Or maybe it was a ploy he used to teach his beliefs and spread his word. Maybe he was just a regular good guy who used being the son of god to make people listen, and whose greatness lay in the fact that he wanted to change the bad things in the world. And maybe his disciples recognised that he was a wonderful, kind, gentle, self-less person with good intentions for the world, and loved him for it..and stuck with the whole "son of god" story because it seemed to be working in order to get to the people.
They say that history hints at the existence of people like Jesus Christ, Ram and Sita etc. If this is true, isn't it possible that they were just great people, like Gautham Buddha, or Gandhi. Not gods but simply great people. Maybe 2000 years from now, Gandhi will be considered a god, someone who "purified untouchables" when what he really did was try to give them a respectable status...I dont know if I'm making complete sense, but d'you know where I'm coming from?
Just a thought.
posted by Sylvan Goddess at 11:46 AM
8 Comments:
oh yes i do
Goddess:
I agree with your point of view.
Very much along the lines of some of my own ponderings.
A real heretic if there was one!
Yes, u r right in most of what u say, with onehonourable exception. That is, centuries from now if the depressed classes worship someone as God it would not be Gandhi. It would be Babasaheb Ambedkar, I respect him a lot. Driven to the wall, finding no hope of ever changing the Hindu bigots he very wisely converted to Buddhism along with his followers. Mind u, he did not embrace islam or christianity. It was painful for him to do so but there was no alternative.
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True. Very true.
Also he may have really believed he was the son of God. After all, if you believe in this God chap, we're all his children. Sons and daughters of God.
Interesting thought.
I understand where you come from but I do not necessarily empathize or agree with your position. The Sufi Masters say that love is not quality that belongs to human beings but a quality that belongs to God. This is because human beings tend to be selfish even when they love! Thinking they are the body (the first mistake), they do all the wrong things. Spiritual masters like Christ, Buddha, Shridi Sai Baba, Sufi mystics like Rumi, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sri Ramana Maharishi and living masters like Mata Amritanandamayi, Sathya Sai Baba and Sadguru Murali Krishna were/are Self Realized Mahatmas. Gandhi was not a spiritual master but a Mahatma whose actions were deeply tempered by spirituality.
If you study the lives of such masters across the traditions of the world (including Hindu, Sufi, Christian, Sikh etc.,) you will discover that that all masters behave in ways the world considers mad. But on closer reflection it is the world that is mad and not the other way around. My Guru Swami Murali Krishna says that you need to be a little mad if you want to experience God. This divine madness is called “bhakti”. There is nothing strange or nutty about it. Self realizations leads to such divine ecstasy.
Christ was one of the most beautiful incarnations of the Supreme Intelligence and his message of love, sacrifice and forgiveness continues to stir hearts and minds. A spiritual master has realized his or her oneness with the Divine Principle is not a person but is God himself! As Ramana Maharishi once said, there is no difference between God, Guru and Ishwara. Or consider his other observation: A jnani (self-realized person) is God himself.”
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This is why Kabir said what do human beings know about love? To give your life for your Guru or to the universe is true love.
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