LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF

 

AN INTERPRETATION OF CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION

I am crucified every moment of the day and resurrected every moment, too. Between every heartbeat, there is a rest. If your heart beats a hundred thousand times a day, all those gaps in between represent death; every time it beats again, it represents life. So, man can say that he is crucified a hundred thousand times a day and resurrected a hundred thousand times a day.

Crucifixion can be taken very literally. Literally in the sense that the man Jesus was nailed on the cross and put to death. That is the literal interpretation of it. There could be another interpretation, that the horizontal bar of the cross represents the worldly existence, the relative existence, and the vertical bar could represent the world of the absolute. So here in man’s existence, in the existence of this man called Jesus, he has represented the combination of the relative and the absolute. We are not trying to find Jesus, but Christ is where the two points meet the horizontal and vertical bars. That is what man must try to achieve.

THAT IS WHY CHRIST COULD SAY, “I AND MY FATHER IS ONE”

If we look at the man just being nailed on the cross, we will only see the man Jesus. But if we can see where the relative meets with the absolute, we will know Christ. Because God exists because man exists, and man exists because God exists. The absolute cannot exist without the relative, and the relative cannot exist without the absolute. They are interpenetrating all the time, all the time. As the absolute is eternal, so is the relative eternal too.

We do not find eternity in relativeness because we look at just tiny, little sections in this vast continuum. We only look at the changes. But behind the shift lies the changeless absolute. If we can combine the two at the point where the cross meets, we will find Christ’s consciousness, and Christ’s consciousness is a combination of man and God, and that is why Christ could say, “I and my father are one.” Because of the combination, the togetherness took place.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF

In this technological age, we have reached significant advances in this sphere of materiality. Let us now turn inward and find the centre of the cross. Let us turn inward, dive inside, and realize experience, which is absolute. These techniques are so simple, and the process is so simple that one can discover or experience that absolute. One can experience the upward-pointing vertical bar of the cross. Otherwise, man, living only on the horizontal bar of the relative, is suspended. He has no foundation. He is suspended in the air like a castle built in the air without foundation, and only the realization of the vertical bar plants him firmly and gives him substance.

The vertical bar is there. The conjunction point is there. It is inherent in man. When the Lord said that I give my life to save humankind, this is what is meant: to bring to you the realization that I do not exist on that horizontal bar alone, but cognize, realize, and experience the vertical bar, and when you reach the meeting point, then this world, God, all existence becomes one to you. When you reach the meeting point of the cross, you are living and resurrected. You are now dead. Become alive. Become alive. And life can only come when we reach the relative and absolute meeting point. It is there. It is there. But only to be brought to our conscious and practical level. That is accurate recognition. That is self-realization. That is self-integration, where you are integrating the Divine and the mundane aspects of yourself, within yourself, to yourself.

When we reach the meeting point of the horizontal and vertical bar, the relative and the absolute, we become permeated with that Divine consciousness. And when that divine consciousness permeates us, everything our eyes can see or our hearts can feel becomes divine. And when Divinity is seen and perceived in everything around us, we can indeed follow the Ten Commandments when it says, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love thy neighbour as thyself because, in reality, thy neighbour is thyself. There is no separation.

THERE IS NO SEPARATION; DUALITY IS AN ASSUMPTION

You are sitting there; I am sitting here. Do you think there is space between us? Something empty, emptiness? There is no emptiness. There are so many atoms and molecules joining you to me that, of course, our limited eyes cannot see or perceive. This whole universe is a continuous whole. There is not an empty fraction. Every square inch, every fraction of an inch, is filled with this energy; therefore, we call Divinity omnipresent.

Perhaps that is why I am placed in the country I am put in. It is some finger that pushed me to that country. When man realizes the equality of all men, when man realizes the oneness that exists and stops his mind from thinking of separations, when man stops thinking of me and mine and you and yours and comes to the level of thinking we and ours, that is when the sense of oneness is cultivated. And when oneness is cultivated, then how can there be hatred? You cannot hate yourself. When we say, “I am my brother’s keeper,” do we understand that? We can only be our brother’s keeper if we love the neighbour as we love ourselves.

Then, we are, in reality, keeping ourselves filled with this love because there is no separation or duality. Duality is an assumption. Duality, the sense of duality, is unreal. Reality is only one. If Divinity is omnipresent and present everywhere, where is there a place for anything else? There is only a place for one, and we all exist in the one, and the one exists in us. That is the meaning of the crucifixion, which is my interpretation: crucifixion and resurrection. But man must die and be born again. Die to the thoughts of separation and be born to the idea of oneness. That is life. That is the way. That is the truth. I could repeat this over and over and over again.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1977 – 23