BIBLE: ANTIDOTE TO VIOLENCE

I just thought of sharing a few lines from my dissertation paper which I did on René Girard’s Mimetic Theory of Violence. It is interesting to see how Girard presents Bible as an Antidote to Violence.

René Girard’s interpretation of the Bible and the crucial role he assigns it in the history of Western culture are doubtless the most controversial features of his entire intellectual enterprise. In his book Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World Girard attributes our ability to break down and analyze “cultural mechanisms” such as scapegoating and to demystify the role of sacrificial violence in the establishment of order, to the influence of Biblical texts. Traditional myth tell the story from the side of the saved community, vilifying but also deifying the scapegoat, hiding the murder and generative mimetic scapegoating mechanism (GMSM). The Judeo-Christian Scriptures exhibit the traits of siding with the victim, clearly portraying the murder and eventual failure of the sacrifice to bring lasting peace. This can be shown in both the Jewish and the Christian texts, in most of the narratives found therein.

In Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World Girard argues that what was distinctive about the Judeo-Christian Scriptures, beginning with the story of Abraham and Isaac and culminating in the Crucifixion of Jesus, was that the violent structures of culture were progressively unveiled, revealed for their arbitrariness and horror, and finally, utterly repudiated. To this end, he engages in a careful series of readings of Biblical texts and relates them to his previous hypothesis on violence and the sacred. Girard arrives at this insight not as chance discovery but as a deep conversion experience. (We shall look at his conversion experience some time later). His conclusion is that the Bible is the sole textual mechanism to enact a complete exposé of the victimage mechanism. Its mission is to alert us to this seemingly perennial cycle of the restoration of order caused by conflictual desire and violence. This exposé was undertaken in order that humanity may refuse the victimage mechanism without remainder.

The Bible in short, offers us real knowledge of human relations. It is not a text to be dissected with modern critical tools but is itself the double edged sword which cuts through the misconceptions of old modernity to get to the fundamental truths of humanity.

FAITH AND CONVERSION

We are in the fourth week of the holy season of Lent - a season which calls for repentance and return. Today's (4th week of lent Monday) Gospel passage (John 4:43-54) sheds light on the close relationship between faith and conversion. The government official whose son Jesus cures makes a significant movement from faith to conversion. Of course the miracle serves only as a passage towards his conversion along with his entire household. This conversion meant a shift in his fundamental option. What shift did he make? He must have been one of those who have been faithful in practicing his faith. But after his encounter with Christ he alters his fundamental option. There he makes his fundamental option for Christ.

Bernard Lonergan would call this shift a religious conversion. Religious conversion is the turning-around that resets our consciousness in terms of unrestricted love. When we are religously converted, our hearts, the centers of ourselves, open to embrace whatever good, noble, true, is humanizing. If so, religious conversion is a yes to the mystery of God, an acceptance of the Creator's ground-rules or conditions. We have been made to be beyond all partial goods and truths, to reject all idolatries. We must refuse to worship anything less than

the unlimited , infinite goodness that whispers in our limitless questioning. The official in this passage is the example of one who realizes his limits and sets on a journey to embrace what is really true - the person of Christ.

In every conversion love occupies the primary place. In making his option for Christ the official enters into a loving relationship with Jesus. When he is in love, he accepts the values and meanings of the beloved; because he loves, he begins to understand anew the values and meanings he has accepted; he begins to even see and hear and feel differently.

The message of lent is not anything lesser than making a fundamental option for Christ, especially for Christ Crucified, because it was on the cross that Christ epitomizes love. Our response consists in sincerely accepting the demands of his love, that with the light of Easter we may see, hear and feel people and things differently.

INDIA WORLD-CUP KULFI

I am sure the title is amusing. For all the kulfi lovers, here is a new flavor of kulfi, "India World-Cup Kulfi." It sounds strange but in fact this was the name a kulfi seller used in order to sell his product. This happened on my way to Bangalore by Karnatake Express. What promted the vendor to use this name? The one and only reason is the fantastic victory of Indian over Pakistan in the semi-final of World-Cup 2011. The Indian lions pounced upon the Pakistan team to claim victory and make that day go back to the pages of Indian Cricket History in Golden Letters. I don't dare speak much about the match as I know what that victory means to all of us.

One thing is sure. For the kulfi seller that historical victory meant business. He seems to me an example of one who is able to be attentive to the signs of the times and make the best of the opportune time. He has the practical wisdom which guided him to use a name suiting the occasion to lure his customers to buy his product. This is what most business men do. I don't know what they call this tact, but that common man has practical skill required for a good business man. We can say that "He makes hay when the sun shines." I wonder whether it can be termed opportunism...

This am admi (common man) however has a great lesson to offer to all of us. He teaches us to make the best of the opportunity when it stands knocking at our doors. For him the opportunity came through India's victory. For you and me it may come in myriads of other ways. The question is what do we do with the opportunities we get. These days most students are busy with the exams. One natural feeling is that of burdensome. But how many of us think that exam is an opportunity to go further ahead in our academics? Need of the hour is change of attitude and the real motivation to rise up to the occasion. May this lesson from the kulfi man's wisdom box ring in our minds every now and then so that we may make the best use of all our opportunities we get, especially those geared towards our growth - physical, mental and spiritual.

"Am Admi Zindabaad............."

Christ's Sacrifice of Obedience

The first reading of today (1st Sunday of Lent) narrates the sin of disobedience of our first parents. As against this sin of disobedience Christ the New Adam makes the final sacrifice of himself a perfect sacrifice of obedience. Thus his sacrifice brings salvation to the whole humanity. To aid an understanding of what the sacrifice of obedience of Jesus was I would like to share an excerpt from my dissertation on Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory of Violence.

The sacrifice of Jesus is quite extensively pondered in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This Epistle partly devoted to explicate the difference between the old sacrifices under the old covenant and Christ’s one and only new sacrifice on the cross under the new covenant. The one and only sacrifice of Jesus is the ‘sacrifice of obedience.’ His was a sacrifice of total surrender to the will of the Father which is evident in Hebrews 10:3-10. The death of Jesus on the cross is part of this sacrifice of obedience.

The whole life of Jesus is one great act of obedience. This is vindicated by the fact that his earthly life is surrounded by references to obedience. The very first words he says upon coming into this world are: “Here I am, ready to do your will” (Hebrews 10:7). The last words are: It is consummated. “Father into your hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). At every important moment in Jesus’ life there are references to the Father’s will, beginning from the finding in the temple (“Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:49), while passing through Samaria (“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” John 4:34), (“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me” John 5:30), in ‘The Bread from Heaven’ discourse (“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day” John 6:38-40), while at the ‘Festival of Booths (“My teaching is not mine but his who sent me” John 7:16), agony in the garden (“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” Mathew 26:42), (“My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done” Luke 22:42), and finally on the cross (“Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last” Luke 23:46).

As we are in this joyous season of lent - joy because of coming back to the Father's house, let us make our own lives a sacrifices of obedience to the loving Father.

Picnic to Mula Dharan

When departure draws close people think of spending more time together - especially the little time that is left before departing. Since the day of departure is arriving super-fast we the SyMPH students organized a picnic to share some light moments together. We went to "Mula Dharan Dam" near Ahmednagar. The best part of the day I should say was the visit to the dam. The dam makes me wonder about the meeting of God's creation and human creativity. The dam is really marvelous and well maintained. We had the opportunity to go to river bed via tunnel - not everyone gets this opportunity. The second best part of the day was the lunch we had on the banks of the river. Fresh fish fry and fish curry was served which was so delicious that I just can't explain it...

We also visited Shirdi to pay homage to "Sai Baba" a favourite saint of our Hindu brotheren. In all these the company of our staff members was really praiseworthy. Their presence was indeed the most cherished one.

HOLY SPRING

We are on the threshold of a very meaningful season which marks a significant phase in the whole plan of salvation. The season of Lent as we know, is a time for renewal – ridding the old self and putting on a new self. I would like draw the example for renewal from the nature itself. If we just gaze at the trees we see them shedding off old and dead leaves and giving birth to the new ones. A tree that was looking bear and dead-like appears fresh, green, full of leaves, full of life. We call this phenomena ‘Spring.’ Lent has to become for us a Holy Spring. Lent has to be a time of death to old selves and rising in Christ on Easter Sunday. But this resurrection has to be preceded by conversion.

The Mother Church offers us a period of forty days to undergo transformation. A period of forty days is not to be taken as a conventional

number used to indicate a period of time necessary for actual preparation and maturation of an event of great significance. Thus the number forty was used to indicate the years that erring Israel had to spend in the desert before they were prepared enough to enter the Promised Land.

Often we might fall prey to the danger of marking lent by time. It may turn out to be a mere practice of the exhortations of the Church regarding the season. One may fast, pray and abstain for forty days and just await the forty first day to get back to old practices. I say, if all the fasting, praying and abstaining don’t lead to a deep conversion experience everything would seem useless.

So as we are about to embark on this beautiful season let us plan how worthily we can enter into the season. Let us plan each step we take with Christ on his way to Calvary. And may every step we take with Christ be a milestone we cross before reaching our conversion, because "conversion is resurrection."

I wish that all of us may be liberated from our iniquities just in time to have a real Easter experience, a death and resurrection experience.

THE SALESIAN CREED

We believe that God loves the young. This is the conviction which is at the origin of our vocation, and which motivates our life and all our pastoral activity.

We believe that Jesus wants to share "his life" with young people: they are the hope of a new future, and in their expectations they bear the seeds of the Kingdom.

We believe that the Spirit is present in them and that through them he wants to build a more authentic and human Christian community. He is already at work in individuals and groups.

He has given them a prophetic task to carry out in the world which is also the world of all of us.

We believe that God is awaiting us in the young to offer us the grace of meeting with him and to dispose us to serve him in them, recognizing their dignity and educating them to the fullness of life.

MY PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION

The classical definition of phenomenology that Husserl gives is that, Phenomenology is to let that which shows itself, be seen from itself the very way in which it shows itself from itself.

No doubt that drawing from this classical definition certain scholars developed the phenomenology of religion. Notable among them are Van der Luuve, Mircea Eliade, William Brede Kriestensen, Rudolf Otto, Waardenberg etc,. Each of them, following the phenomenological approach arrived at a phenomenology of religion, and tried to describe the phenomena of religion.

I was particularly influenced by the exposition of the sacred that Mircea Eliade does in his book The Sacred and the Profane. Instead of repeating what he has spoken, I would come straight to the point. The concept of Sacred Self particularly attracted my attention. Eliade speaks of sacred self only in relation to the rites of passage, initiation and death: a death to the old self and emerging to new life.

Reflecting rather seriously on the issue at hand, I would like to stress that even man is a phenomena of religion. My contention is based not so much on scholarly research or well quoted foot note but on my conviction. I strongly believe that man as a phenomenon of religion manifests the divine. Just as contemplating on the sky, stones and the cosmos in general point to the divine, contemplating on man would not go lesser, but point even higher to that very Divine Being. If sky manifests to the divine infinity and the stone permanence and strength, the phenomena of man points to the Being who is alive, real, active and the most intelligent Being.

At this juncture I would take the support of St. Thomas Aquinas who said that the intelligence, creativity and complexity of human brain do nothing but point out to the Supreme Intelligent Creator, who is Simple, devoid of composition.Further, dwelling on this topic we can go on enumerating many instances of divine manifestation through man. However, I would like to take the most obvious example of the Saints, who through their life and actions manifested the divine. Examples are available in galore, but let me limit myself by mentioning about our own contemporary, Bl. Mother Teresa of Kolkata. As an ordinary religious woman she spread the compassion of Christ. Whoever encountered her, encountered Christ and His compassionate love. Her words were God’ words, her love was God’s love and her touch was the Divine touch.

With this example of a simple woman I would like to reemphasize that man is a phenomena or religion; a glimpse of whom and an understanding of whom can direct us towards the divine. Then our experience would be that of St. Augustine who said “ I looked all around for you, O Beauty so ancient yet so new, but failed to see you indwelling within me. And my heart is restless until it finds rest in you.”

Just like some writers adopted the result of Anthropology and psychology to the study of religion; I would suggest the same enterprise to be undertaken for my phenomenology of religion. Schleiermacher spoke about the psychic faculty that is present in the religious subject. Mircea Eliade said that religion is just about man’s behavior. Putting these two pieces together I feel that getting deeper into the psychic faculty and behaviour of man, we can get the glimpse of the divine within this subject. However, I consciously avoid the danger of advocating the Vedantic concept of identity between the real self and the Ultimate Brahman.

I would unhesitatingly claim that studying the phenomenon of man and the way he manifests the Divine would be like doing “Depth Phenomenology of Religion.” By doing this depth phenomenology of religion, I am confident of an ascent from the immanent world to the transcendent, from the myths and ritualistic practices to a personal relationship.

Finally before I conclude I would like to give my definition of religion: “Religion is the deeper awareness of the divine self within the human self. It is also a means to establish a relationship with this divine self and the manifestation of this relationship to the external world through religious behaviour.”

USE OF COMPARISONS AND SIMILES TO TEACH TRUTH

7.7 – Mattah paratarm n’anyat

kincid asti Dhananjaya

mayi sarvam idma protam

sutre mani-gana iva

Atman is the source, sustenance and end of everything. While He is the maker, he also holds in sustenance and everything is directed to Him. The whole reality is clung to Him just as myriads of pearls are threaded onto one string. The whole of reality is held by Him, the supporting string. The pearls threaded together may vary in colour and species but their support is one and the same. Apart from the string the pearls are scattered, order is destroyed and beauty is lost. Just like the pearl if may soul does not thread itself to the string I will be nothing. Apart from Me you can do nothing.

2.58 – yada samharate cayam

kurmo ‘ngani va sarvasah

indriyani’ndriyarthebhyas

tasya prajna pratisthita

Collecting oneself into the core of his/her being is a prerequisite for contemplation. To attain true wisdom one has to detach him/herself from the objects and obstacles of the world. The way to do it is beautifully explicated in the about simile. A tortoise that pulls its limbs into its shell feels safe and secure. In the same fashion, a man who wishes to be perfect bolts from within and sits indoors undisturbed and delights in the Atman. This is the path to the realization of the supreme. The sages of India have left us with the same model. The way in is the way to transcendence. This is the longest journey that anyone can venture into.

2.46 – yavan artha udapane

sarvatah samplut ‘ odake

tavan sarvesu vedsu

brahmanasya vijanatah

Demand is more where there is lack. One who lacks the wisdom of the Vedas requires them in a more urgent fashion. One who is already filled with the knowledge of the Brahman the use of Vedas and Scriptures is limited. Such a person can compared to one who is dwelling in the place of abundance. In a flooded situation where there is water all over, what is the use of a tank of water. Just as the tank is submerged in the flood, so also the Vedas are submerged in the enlightened soul. The following simile can be a parallel to the above simile – “it is the patient who needs doctor and not the healthy.” The enlightened soul is a healthy soul which does not need the doctor (Vedas).

5.10 – Brahmany adhyaya karmani

Sangam tyaktva karoti yah

Lipyate na sa papena

Padma-patram iv’ ambhasa

To be inside something and still be untouched by it is very difficult. To be in the world and yet remain unaffected by it is also difficult. But his is the way to salvation as taught by the Gita. In every thought, word, and deed detachment is expected. Such a detachment comes by dedicating all our deeds to Brahman. Consequently our detachment leads to attachment with Brahman. All of us are born with Karma and sustained by it. But a yogi is one, who while living with his Karma is not affected by it. He is compared to a lotus leaf which though constantly in touch with the water is not touched by it.

2.70 – Apuryamanam acala-pratistham

samudram apah pravisanti yadvat

tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve

sa santim apnoti na kama-kami

The metaphor of the ocean beautifully describes the state of mind of a Jivan-mukta – a free Soul still being in his body. He is rightly compared to an ocean which does not undergo any change although the rivers keep pouring into it and the water keeps getting evaporated. The expanse of the ocean remains unaltered. The mind of the yogi is like the ocean. Everything gets dissolved in the ocean of his consciousness including the sensations carried in by the sense-organs. He is not subject to desires, aversions, feelings and thoughts. His state is identical with one who is in the world but not of the world. Still being in this world he has already attained mukti. That is why he is called the Jivan-mukta.to have one such soul is the society is a boon. People can look at him and be radiant

.10.39 – yac c’ api sarva-bhutanam

bijam tad aham Arjuna

na tad asti vina yat syan

maya bhutam car’ acaram

Nothing comes out of nothing. All that exists and lives, whether animate or inanimate has its source. That source is the Atman – the creator, sustainer and the goal of everything. He is rightly compared to the cosmic seed in this verse. Everything has emerged out of this seed. Apart from this seed (Atman) they have no being (existence).

3.16 – evam pravartitam cakram

n’ anuvartayati’ha yah

agh’ ayur indriy’ aramo

mogham Partha sa jivati

There is order in the created universe. Things live and move according to a particular rhythm. Order also reveals that everything has a purpose. The purpose is already set in motion at the creation. If a man does away from doing what is expected of him it would be better for him not to have been born. A life without purpose is not worth living. If any man fails to fulfill his purpose in life he frustrates the divine plan. He disrupts the order in nature. Each and every man has a vocation to fulfill in his or her life.

6.34 – Cancalam hi manah Krsna

pramathi balavad drdham

tasy’aham nigraham manye

vayor iva suduskaram

Wind is a very strong natural force. We are quite familiar with the effects of a strong wind. It destroys anything that comes on its way. It can even turn a ship upside down. In the above verse human mind is compared to the wind which is to a certain extent beyond our control. Human mind is as obstinate as the wind; it does not listen to anybody. Even if man has discovered ways an means to control the wind the mind is still a baffling reality before him. Controlling the mind is so very difficult. It is only Krishna who is endowed with the power to tame the human mind and keep it under control. It is our duty to surrender ourselves to him.

13.33 – yatha prakasayaty ehah

Krtsnam lokam imam ravih

ksetram ksetri tatha krtsnam

prakasayati Bharata

The light around us has a single source – the Sun. in the same way the paramatman who gives spiritual brilliance to the whole universe is single without a second. Everything without difference of any kind gets its light from the Atman. Just as the Sun shines on the righteous as well as the wicked, the light of the paramatman shines equally on the myriads of existing things in its true glory. His light is unchanging and unaffected by the merit or demerit of the individual souls. He remains in His glory forever while also providing life, light and love to all beings.

The Mediation of Christ in Prayer

Our world is a mediated world. It is mediated because it is created. It has its origin. It is the effect of a cause. Some call its origin to be God, while some others (scientists) call its origin to be some vital principle. The fact is that, what was immediate has been mediated in the making of the world. In this was everything we see around us is mediated due to the dynamics of cause and effect. This is the basic understanding of mediation with which we will attempt to understand the mediation of Christ in our prayer. This article is concerned about the mediation of Christ in prayer. However, Christ’s mediation is something more profound than the way, let us say the saints mediated our prayer through their intercession.

According to Bernard Lonergan, there are two ways in which mediation of Christ is applied. One, an objective application, and the other, subjective application. Objective application would be the spontaneous way Christ is presented in the Scripture, in terms of Galatians 4:4 ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba! Father!’; Christ as love ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13); in terms of the precept of Christ ‘I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another’ (John 13:34). Objective application is done also through the religious teachings on Christ’s life of suffering and death, his work of redemption in his sacrifice. It is also evident from the scripture that Christ mediates between us and the Father: ‘There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus’ (1Timothy 2:5); and the Holy Spirit mediates between us and Christ:‘Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit” (1Corinthians 12:3). This is all an account of Christ as mediator in the objective field.

We now move on to the subjective application of Christ’s mediation. Each of us to himself is immediate: oneself as one is, oneself as Existenz, as capable of decision etc. There are some things in us which are to be known; things that are prior given to oneself, all the data of one’s spontaneity, one’s deliberate decisions, one’s living, one’s loving. These are all in our immediacy as ourselves. In all that immediacy there are supernatural realities that are actually not part of our nature but result from the communication to us of Christ’s life. We find the evidence to it in the prologue of St. John’s Gospel: ‘what has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people’ (John 1:3-4). We are a mixture of earth and heaven (body and spirit). We are also temples of the Holy Spirit – proclaims St Paul to the Corinthians: ‘Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?... Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?’ (1Corinthians 6:15-19).

Being the temple of the Holy Spirit, a member of Christ, and adoptive child of God the Father is the higher part of our reality. Though not part of us by nature they are essentially the gift of God. Present in us as immediate they have to be mediated by the life of prayer. What is thus given to us as a gift has to be made part of our habitual conscious living. Otherwise, we remain in a vegetative state of grace. Grace can be made dynamic and active by the life of prayer, by living, developing and growing, in which one element is gradually added to another and anew whole emerges.

Just as we came to consciousness and grow into full knowledge of ourselves by self-appropriation, in the same way what we are by the grace of God can be mediated by our acts. This is actually self-mediation – for we are mediating what is immediate in us, namely: the temple of the Holy Spirit, a member of Christ and an adoptive child of God the Father. In doing so Christ becomes as one who is apprehended by us. We put on Christ in our own way, in accord with out own capacity and individuality in response to our own needs and failings. Although our appropriation of Christ through our acts appears to be a self-mediation, it is much more than that. Since the object of our living and loving has been Christ in one way or the other it is a self-mediation through another. Besides experiences, insights, judgments, choices, decisions, conversion there is a sense of being carried along. This, Lonergan terms it as mutual self-mediation. We have to see how it is a mutual self-mediation.Christ’s incarnation is the real evidence to this mutual self-mediation as it can be very beautifully explicated in the words of the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4:7-8:

Yada yada hi dharmasya

Glanir bhavati bharata

Abhyutthanam adharmasya

Tad’ atmanam srjamy aham

Paritranaya sadhunam

Vinsaya ca duskrtam

Dharma-samsthapan’ arthaya

Sambhavami yuge yuge

(Whenever there is decline of Dharma and ascendance of Adharma, then, O scion of the Bharata race! I manifest (incarnate) Myself in a body. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of Dharma, I am born from age to age).

Christ as incarnated man developed and acquired human perfection. Christ chose and decided to perfect himself in the way of the cross, because he was redeeming a fallen humanity. In becoming a perfect man he was thinking of us and thinking of what we needed to be able to attain our own self-mediation. Just as we attain our self mediation with reference to him in the life of prayer, so also the life of Christ was a self-mediation with reference to us. Prayer is then a reciprocal response of mutual self-mediation that we choose because of him. The mediation of Christ in the life of prayer is then a mutual self mediation, because we choose the cross of Christ because Christ chose it because of us.

Finally we can say that Christ is the mediator in the life of prayer insofar as the life of prayer itself is a transition from the immediacy of spontaneity through the objectification of ourselves in acts. The mutual self-mediation of God’s love in the life of interior prayer can be exteriorly expressed in the charity towards one’s neighbour. We become perfect by our acts of living and acts of praying which are done of course with reference to Christ. Christ came that all people might be saved, and that kingdom of God may be established here on earth. But only a small contingent of people appropriated him through their self-mediation. Therefore the ideal of the Cosmopolis which Lonergan speaks of remains an ideal to be achieved. Nevertheless as he himself says, the movement towards the Cosmopolis begins with mutual self-mediation.

Bhagavad Gita and Christ: Parallels

Bhagavad Gita and Christ: Parallels

Gita is the source of joy – 18.77

Tac ca samsmrtya-samsmrtya

Rupam atyadbhutam Hareh

Vismayo me mahan rajan

Hrsyami ca punah-punah

(again and again does that most wondrous form of Hari arise in my mind, generosity great astonishment and endless thrills of joy).

John 15:11 “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy mat be complete.”

Gita is revelation out of love – 18.64

Sarva-guhyatamam bhuyah

Srnu me paramam vacah

Isto si me drdham iti

Tato vaksyami te hitam

(listen again to My Supreme word, the profoundest of all spiritual teachings. You are well beloved of Me; and so I shall tell you what is beneficial to you).

John: 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Gita is a promise – 4.7-8

Yada yada hi dharmasya

Glanir bhavati bharata

Abhyutthanam adharmasya

Tad’ atmanam srjamy aham

Paritranaya sadhunam

Vinsaya ca duskrtam

Dharma-samsthapan’ arthaya

Sambhavami yuge yuge

(Whenever there is decline of Dharma and ascendance of Adharma, then, O scion of the Bharata race! I manifest (incarnate) Myself in a body. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of Dharma, I am born from age to age).

Mathew 1:23 “Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us.”

Acts 13:23 “God has brought to Israel, a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised.”

The promise of the Gita is fulfilled in Christ; for he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and establishes Dharma.