Part 4
The day of Jesus’ execution begins in the pre-dawn hours when he is arrested owing to his betrayal by Judas Iscariot. Paramhansa Yogananda said that Judas had to be a “prophet,” meaning a high soul, to have become one of the twelve. His betrayal of Jesus is a warning and reminder to all sincere disciples against pride and negative critique of the guru. (Constructive doubt is not an issue.)
Yogananda also said that Judas, after two thousand years, was at last liberated by a great yogi in India in the 19th century. He still had a little attachment to money, he said!
The apocryphal text called the Book of Judas spins Judas’ role into that of hero but I, for one, don’t buy it. That’s like some of the so-called Gnostics who spun the snake in Genesis into a hero as well. Such reactive spins are typical of, well, reactionaries who so often feel compelled to say the opposite…just because!
Jesus prayed so deeply in the garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest that he perspired not just sweat but blood. Who dare say he didn’t participate in the human drama, despite his God-realization. He prayed, moreover, that “this cup pass” concluding his prayer, however, that “Thy will be done.” What an example for all of us who struggle with our own life challenges and karma. Nor should we try to compare our cross with his or anyone else’s. Paramhansa Yogananda counseled us to accept “What comes of itself, let it come.”
This is not to say “be passive” for only days earlier in his life Jesus attacked and drove out the money changers from the temple precincts. There are times for righteous indignation in defense of a sacred principle or in defense of the helpless. And there are times when our karma or the divine will invites us to raise our energy and will power in the form of acceptance.
At the Last Supper Jesus predicted Peter’s three-time denial of Jesus: what a lesson for us, too. How often do professed disciples deny the guru or the path of truth, not necessarily by words but by our actions. And yet Jesus prayed for Peter knowing his weakness. What love, what promise, what true friendship!
There’s no need or impetus for me to describe the events of Jesus’ crucifixion: they are too well known and far too vivid for modern sensibilities. And besides, in doing so, we quickly lose sight of their true significance: how we should handle our own crucifixions, humiliations, betrayals and suffering.
In the twenty-first century there may be very few who experience the torture equivalent to crucifixion, but illness and violence are far too common and not so distant if you are apt to attempt to measure pain.
But the real measure is not physical pain, but the power of unearned sacrifice when offered for the upliftment of others. While to say “Jesus died for our sins” is mere sentiment, yoga teachings aver that a true guru can take on some of the karma of his disciples. Yogananda’s famous “Autobiography of a Yogi” gives several examples.
Yogananda taught that Jesus took on the karma primarily of his close disciples and that includes disciples reborn in future lives such as St. Francis and many other great Christian saints. A yogi-christ who has achieved God-realization is not limited to the human form, nor time and space, being one with the Infinite.
But to what degree does an avatar take on one’s karma? St. John answered this in Chapter 1 of his gospel: “To as many as received Him to them gave He the power to become the sons of God.”
The gospel text adds this to the quote: “And even them who believed on His name.” Yogananda didn’t comment on that statement, but I think it is evident that John added this to give hope to new converts. And it has surely some truth but not the deeper truth as relates to the soul’s achieving God-realization.
One who returns to human form now free from all karma comes as an “avatar” and has the power to free an unlimited number of souls. But such souls must be ready and sufficiently advanced to achieve final liberation. Yet all disciples gain, certainly, by the measure of their attunement “in spirit and in truth” to the ever-living spirit and teachings of the master. “Spirit” means “consciousness” and “truth” means in attitudes, words, and actions. A Christian way of saying this is to live “in the imitation of Christ.” All avatars are God-realized, Yogi-Christs.
Yogananda for the modern age emphasized the joy of living for God and taught that pain has its source in ego and bodily consciousness. By contrast, the great Self of the soul is eternal and ever free. (Thus, a heated debate occurred in early Christianity over whether Jesus experienced pain or not, given that he was the son of God. The gospel narratives make it very clear, however, that Jesus partook fully in the human experience as part of his gift to disciples.)
Nonetheless, as Buddha reminds us: life is characterized by the three-fold suffering of illness, old age and death (and a lot more in-between)! To his close disciples, therefore, Yogananda also taught the importance of forbearance which is to say, carrying our crosses with even-mindedness and, as we grow spiritually, cheerfully and later even with gratitude for the opportunity to redeem our past karma and then further, as we advance, to redeem the karma of others who look to us for guidance.
On the cross Jesus cried out to his past-life guru, Elias saying “Why hast Thou abandoned me!” In Chapter 35 of Yogananda’s famous “Autobiography of a Yogi,” he reveals that John the Baptist was his guru in a former lifetime when they were, respectively, Elijah and Elisha. (It was Elias, with Moses, who appeared to Jesus on Mt. Tabor in the Transfiguration. Yogananda taught that Moses, too, was a God-realized master.)
Jesus had, at that moment, a kind of “dark night of the soul” and experienced what to the rest of us is normal: our separation from God, from our soul’s consciousness. In this too he fully partook of the human experience.
Yogananda accepted the gospels’ narrative regarding the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His own guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, appeared to him in resurrected human form three months after his guru’s burial. Such things are part of Indian spirituality but are not limited to only one great guru.
India’s contribution to us now in this modern era is seeing the life and teachings of Jesus Christ through the lens of a universal principle by which human consciousness is uplifted through the appearance in every age of a God-realized soul.
May your spirit be strong as you carry the daily crosses of your life, doing so with equanimity, calmness, and inner joy and acceptance.
Nayaswami Hriman