GospelofLove

God has no competitor, and God never comes under illusion. God never comes under the control of the material energy because He is the origin of it. In Isaiah 45:5-7 we read, “I am the Lord, and there is no other. Apart from Me there is no God … I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord do all these things.” And in Isaiah 46:5, 9-11, it could not be said more clearly, “To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared? I am God, there is no other. I am God, there is none like Me … I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I will summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about. What I have planned, that will I do.” So many of us, we try to blame death and the problems of this world on the devil. Like it is not a built-in arrangement of the material world, which is indirectly sanctioned by God. This world is not our home. This world is imperfect by design so that we begin to question why there is suffering. We are not supposed to be away from God. We are not supposed to be trying to be masters and try to lord over others.

Many people wonder if God really loves everyone unconditionally when they see all the suffering in the world. Some people feel, “Why does God allow this to happen?” As we already learned, God is the most fair, and we all receive what we deserve. Similarly, every one of us has the type of relationship with God that we desire. God reciprocates with us according to how close we want to be with Him. Some people when they get angry with God, they turn their back on Him. But God never turns his back on us, He never abandons anyone. I may turn my back on God and say, “Where is God? Where is God?” But God is still right here, and all I need to do is turn around and face God. That is all I need to do.

Often a person projects their own inhumanity upon God and starts seeing fault in God. And they see perfection in themselves. This is actually at the root of the problem. This is why a person cannot see God’s goodness because he is perceiving himself as all good and God as somehow deficient in kindness. So, you think you are very kind, but God is not very kind. When the fact is that God is very kind, and He gives all living entities an opportunity to come back to Him, just according to their desire. God does not make it so that some people can know Him and others cannot. There is no unfairness; there is not a speck of unfairness in God. When a person does not have faith in that, this is unfortunate. And this is the cause why a person is in this material world. There are those who do not understand that actually the suffering of each of us is dependent or due to our previous karma, our previous activities in previous lives. Because they do not understand this, therefore, they end up saying that either God is not loving or that God is not kind or that God does not exist or that God is not all-powerful.

When we don’t have any higher information on what God is really like then we are left with our mental speculation. God does not have a material form that is controlled by the material laws of nature. But God has a spiritual form. And this spiritual form can be seen by those who have developed the spiritual vision to see Him. God therefore can be described by those who have seen Him. And God describes what He is like.

Another quality of the representative of God is that this person has actually changed. Their heart is changed. They are no longer in the enjoying mood. A person might have a certain position or title in a some religion or organization. But does that alone make them a representative of the Supreme Lord? No. To be a confidential servant of the Lord one has to actually have a change of heart and give up this idea of being the central enjoyer in one’s life.

The complete verse John 14:6 states “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Jesus does not simply mean, that one says, “Jesus, Jesus, I accept you,” but he means his instruction. If I say to you that I accept you, but I do not accept your instructions, then have I actually accepted you? No. If I accept your instructions, then you know that I have accepted you. This is confirmed in John 14:23-24, where Jesus says “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”

This whole idea of describing God as a mean and punishing God is an attempt to try to scare people. So that they stop to do bad things because they are afraid of being punished by God. Yes, there are consequences for all of our actions. Everyone will receive what they deserve according to their previous activities. But God does not enjoy to watch people suffer. He is always fair, and He is most forgiving. So, it is not enough for people to be afraid of God. We need to learn about God’s unconditional love for us. That He is our ever well wisher. That He always want to see us happy. That He is our best friend. We need to come to this point where we want to change our lives because we love God. Not out of fear. But because I want to please Him, I want to see Him being pleased with me.

If we want to actually have a change of heart, develop real faith and love in God, then we need to have the help of a bona fide spiritual teacher. It is not possible to transcend the influence of the material world by ourselves. For that we have to develop our love for God. And to come to that point, we have to have contact with lovers of God or with the lover of God. And we should hear from that person, learn from that person. We should take instructions from that person, follow that person's advice and learn from him how I can develop my love for God.

In John 7:15-17, we hear, “The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” Jesus is saying, “If you want to do the will of my Father in heaven, if you want to do the will of my Father, then you will know that I am from Him.”

A representative of God must actually know the Supreme Lord and be fixed in the Absolute Truth. Fixed in the Absolute Truth means that if you want to know God, you have to find someone who knows God. If he does not know God, then he is not going to help you to know God. We hear in Luke 6:39, Jesus also told them a parable, “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall in a pit?” If you cannot see, then you are not going to be able to help anybody else see. If you do not know God, then you cannot help anyone else know Him. If you cannot see God, you are not going to be able to help anyone else see Him.

By perceiving Jesus’ unconditional love for the Father, his lack of attraction to the world, I perceive the beauty of the Supreme Father. By perceiving little glimpses of the authority that Jesus spoke with or the authority that Jesus had when he spoke or in his activities, I actually get a glimpse of the authority of God, how God is the Supreme Authority, that no one is above Him. So, actually this is the real meaning of, “If you behold me, you behold the One who sent me.” It is not that Jesus is saying that he is the Father. He is the transparent medium for the Supreme Father.

Jesus Christ is serving the Supreme Person out of love. He is sacrificing out of his love. The Supreme Person is the life and soul of Jesus Christ. If we deny the very existence of the Supreme Person, then we are not understanding and appreciating the life, the heart, the sacrifices, the very being, the life and soul of Jesus Christ.

Jesus describes oneness as being the husband and the wife, they are one, yet there are two distinct individuals. It is not that they are one being. They are one, and yet still they are two. That is why actually Jesus is saying here that, “I and my Father are one.” He did not say, “I am God.” He could have very easily or directly said, “I am the Father.” But he did not say, “I am the Father.” He said “I and the Father,” which means plural. There are two. “There are two of us. I and the Father are one.” So, he is saying that, “There are two of us, but we are one.” This means that the oneness is not oneness of personalities or merged identities, but rather oneness is oneness of will and oneness of love

An instructive verse is John 7:28, “You both know me and know where I am from. I have not come of myself but He who sent me is true Whom you do not know.” It is very clearly stated, “You both know me, but He Who sent me is true Whom you do not know. He Who sent me is true. Jesus made it very simple for us to understand. “You both know me,” and then he says, “The one Who sent me, Whom you do not know.”

Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” (Matthew 18:28). We need to ask who gave Jesus the authority? He is not saying, “I am the original authority. I am the source.” He is not saying that. He is saying that, “I have been given all authority.” So that means that there is another person who has a will, who has given him the authority. There is the Supreme Authority who has given Jesus the authority.

When you leave your body, you are either going to be resurrected, you will go to the kingdom of God, or not. If you are still attached to the world of flesh and blood, then material nature will arrange it so that you can take on another material body. It is important to note that it is not God making this decision for us. Rather it is our choices and actions that create our future, our destiny. Jesus Christ gives us the key to transcending the wheel of birth and death. What is it?

If we do not accept the reality of reincarnation, then we are denying Jesus’ very important teaching, the law of karma, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” The law of individual responsibility is that you are responsible, you are responsible for your activities now. And what you are experiencing now is due to what you were doing previously.

In his answer, Jesus Christ did not deny that a person can be born blind because of his sinful activities previously, but rather he said, “Neither, in this case.” He said, “In this case this person was born blind because my Father willed it for the purpose of glorifying me, His son.” In other words, it was already arranged by God that this person would be born blind, not because of his sinful reactions, not because of his previous sinful life, but he would be born blind, so that he would be part of this pastime of Jesus Christ.

In the human form of life we have the capacity to consider how our actions will affect others. We are not forced to act and react according to impulses that are built into the human body. Therefore, we are responsible for our actions now.

First, we will look at Luke 9.19 where Jesus asks his disciples a question that is very important. “Who do people say I am?” Jesus asked, and his disciples answered, “John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again.” He is taking it for granted, and they are taking it for granted that he is asking, “Who do they say I was? Who was I?” Jesus did not deny this common cultural knowledge of his time. So, Jesus is saying that the person who previously was Elias came back as John the Baptist.

In our discussion on reincarnation we have to consider the teachings of Origen. Origen (A.D. c.185-254) was a Greek theologian described by Saint Gregory of Nyssa as “the prince of Christian learning in the third century.” So much of what is known as the literature of the Christian church today is founded upon the teachings of Origen. This early Christian church influenced by Origen taught reincarnation for hundreds of years. In his book ‘First Principles’ Origin wrote: “By some inclination towards evil certain souls lose their ways and come into bodies first of men. Then through their association with the irrational passions after the allotted span of human life they are changed into beasts from which they sink to the level of plants. From this condition they rise again to the same stages.”

So, we all have so many external labels placed on our bodies such as male, female, young, old, white, black, attractive, unattractive etc. So much of the divisiveness that we see in the world is rooted in labeling others and placing them in certain boxes or categories. Then the tendency is to judge others because they belong to a certain box or category. Yet rarely do we take the time to look deeper, to look beneath the external appearances and get to know the heart and mind of the person who is inside the body.

We have looked at both scripture and science and can conclude that they both provide clear evidence that the living beings are not made of temporary matter. Unfortunately, very few people actually take the time and effort to understand the distinction between matter and life and understand the distinction between themselves and their body—that I am the life within this body. Hardly any school in the world is teaching the science of our identity. Unfortunately, the large majority of people still identify themselves as the temporary body. And because they identify themselves as the body, they are still afraid of death, they still are trying to find happiness in the passing things of this world. Virtually all problems in this world are rooted in and caused by our belief that we are these temporary, material bodies.

Studies at the Oak Ridge Atomic Research Center revealed that about 98 percent of all the atoms in a human body are replaced every year. You get a new suit of skin every month and a new liver every six weeks. The lining of your stomach lasts only five days before it is replaced. Even your bones are not the solid, stable structures you might have thought them to be. They are undergoing constant change. The bones you have today are different from the bones you had a year ago. 1Taken from Guy Murchie, The Seven Mysteries of Life (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1978), pp. 321-22

The living being brings life to the body while the soul is present in the body. This is supported by John 6:63, “The spirit gives life and the flesh counts for nothing.” One can observe what happens to the flesh and the body at the time of death when the spirit soul has departed from the body. All the chemicals are still present in the body, but the lifeforce has left the body causing the body to break down rapidly.