Hari Om
'Freedays' are the 'gather our thoughts' days; Q&As; a general review of the week so far…
A conversation took place last week. Out of the blue the
person with whom it was being engaged said,
“I would just like you to know that you made me a better
Christian.”
Whilst it took mere seconds to formulate a response – “Only you
can make of yourself a better Christian, no one can do that for you!” – it actually
felt much longer. The churning of the
‘little grey cells’ was something to behold. Up until that point the chatter
had been unrelated to anything particularly spiritual. Trying to relate what
had been said to anything which had immediately preceded it as well as trying
to grasp the context into which it might be leading was part of the inner
flurry.
The follow-up comment revealed some more.
“Oh yes, granted; but it was from when you had mentioned
that you thought of Jesus as a fine man, leading by example and being a supreme
prophet. I found myself thinking on that for long afterwards, as it challenged
my acceptance of Jesus as the Son of God. It was necessary to review my
perception and my relationship with Him.”
Thus, a much earlier conversation had been referenced and it
became clear that something had been stirred. This is as it ought to be. We can so easily drift along in our
little cocoon of certainty about our particular connection to The Higher, never
questioning, never stretching ourselves to truly improve our spiritual
connection. Never growing.
Conversely, we may have wrapped that cocoon around us
because we fear the challenge, the queries, and the answers which they will
yield. We can build up a fear of stretching our spiritual muscle.
For many, keeping The Higher (however we chose to name it)
and any who are considered as ‘Godmen’ (Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak…) as separate
from life, means that we can ‘go to them’ when in need. It is less common to
find those who accept that the saints and sages and, indeed, The Higher, can be
resident within us at all times, accessible in all places, ever guiding and
caring for that part of us which is above and beyond the physical. The idea,
too, that Jesus in particular, was not of flesh and blood tends to linger – yet
He alone says, when we are asked to remember him, that He is of flesh and
blood. However, when viewed through the scope of Vedantic understanding, (that
everything is of the same stuff, energetically connected), the bread which we
consume is of the very same material from which His body, therefore our own, is
made; the wine which is drunk is of the very same material as His blood,
therefore so must be our own. That ‘energy-link’ is The Higher. If Jesus is to be called
the Son of God, then we too are His Children.
We are connected through the sacred. This was undoubtedly the message of our Sweet
Lord Jesus. It is the message of Vedanta. It is the message of all true
Philosophy. Keeping it at distance, to be dusted off on Sabbath days,
separating it from us, is to be living a fraction of our spiritual potential.
Wrapping it in walls of dogma, seeking to differentiate rather than integrate
the deeper understandings of whichever doctrine we follow, is to deny ourselves
the fullness of enlightenment.
If another truly felt that through our conversation a shift
towards spiritual improvement had taken place, then, certainly the Lord found
an instrument in this roaming soul.
For that, there is gratitude not just from the beneficiary,
but within the instrument itself.