Sacred Good Friday today. It was on this day His Holiness Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth was crucified at Golgotha (Calvary site) on the outskirts of the Holy city of Jerusalem. Let us now look at the esoteric significance of this event, leaving aside the petty political, communal aspects of the same.
From a spiritual perspective, Lord Jesus Christ, the Begotten Son, and one of noblest of souls, who, out of His Infinite Compassion and Mercy, underwent the unimaginable agony and suffering of His crucifixion, as an act self-sacrifice, for the sake of world. To quote from the Holy Bible:
In fact, He even at the time of His Crucifixion, prayed for the welfare of his enemies, the very persons who tortured him to death. Lord Jesus prayed,
One might ask a seemingly very logical question, why should the Omnipotent God need to undergo this mode of salvaging the universe? Doesn’t he know a simpler method, for, after all, He is the Almighty God? Well, as a response to these questions, I would like to quote here the following verses from Sri Aurobindo’s poetic masterpiece Savitri, wherein the saint-poet very beautifully explains the whole concept behind God’s incarnation into the phenomenal world and His sufferings and sacrifices for the sake of mankind,
διὸ καὶ
Ἰησοῦς, ἵνα ἁγιάσῃ διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου αἵματος τὸν λαόν, ἔξω τῆς πύλης ἔπαθεν
(
dio kai iEsous hina
hagiasE dia tou idiou haimatos
ton laon exO tEs
pulEs epathen
And so
Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his
own blood
) Greek Reference :
Holy Bible: Hebrews (13:12)
ὁ δὲ
Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν. διαμεριζόμενοι δὲ
τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ ἔβαλον κλήρους.
(
ho de
Iēsous elegen Pater, aphes autois; ou gar oidasin ti poiousin. diamerizomenoi
de ta himatia autou ebalon klērous.
Jesus
said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
)Greek Reference::
Holy Bible: Luke (23:34)
One might ask a seemingly very logical question, why should the Omnipotent God need to undergo this mode of salvaging the universe? Doesn’t he know a simpler method, for, after all, He is the Almighty God? Well, as a response to these questions, I would like to quote here the following verses from Sri Aurobindo’s poetic masterpiece Savitri, wherein the saint-poet very beautifully explains the whole concept behind God’s incarnation into the phenomenal world and His sufferings and sacrifices for the sake of mankind,
He who would save the race must share its pain:
This he shall know who obeys that grandiose urge.
The Great who came to save this suffering world
And rescue out of Time’s shadow and the Law,
Must pass beneath the yoke of grief and pain;
They are caught by the Wheel that they had hoped to break,
On their shoulders they must bear man’s load of fate.
Heaven’s riches they bring, their sufferings count the price
Or they pay the gift of knowledge with their lives.
The Son of God born as the Son of man
Has drunk the bitter cup, owned Godhead’s debt,
The debt the Eternal owes to the fallen kind
His will has bound to death and struggling life
That yearns in vain for rest and endless peace.
Now is the debt paid, wiped off the original score.
The Eternal suffers in a human form,
He has signed salvation’s testament with his blood:
He has opened the doors of his undying peace.
The Deity compensates the creature’s claim,
The Creator bears the law of pain and death;
A retribution smites the incarnate God.
His love has paved the mortal’s road to Heaven:
He has given his life and light to balance here
The dark account of mortal ignorance.
It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice,
Offered by God’s martyred body for the world;
Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot,
He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed;
His escort is the curses of the crowd;
Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment;
Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.
He has trod with bleeding brow the Saviour’s way.
He who has found his identity with God
Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.
Hewn, quartered on the scaffold as he falls,
His crucified voice proclaims, ‘I, I am God;’
‘Yes, all is God,’ peals back Heaven’s deathless call.
The seed of Godhead sleeps in mortal hearts,
The flower of Godhead grows on the world-tree:
All shall discover God in self and things.
But when God’s messenger comes to help the world
And lead the soul of earth to higher things,
He too must carry the yoke he came to unloose;
He too must bear the pang that he would heal:
Exempt and unafflicted by earth’s fate,
How shall he cure the ills he never felt?
He covers the world’s agony with his calm;
But though to the outward eye no sign appears
And peace is given to our torn human hearts,
The struggle is there and paid the unseen price;
The fire, the strife, the wrestle are within.
He carries the suffering world in his own breast;
Its sins weigh on his thoughts, its grief is his:
Earth’s ancient load lies heavy on his soul;
Night and its powers beleaguer his tardy steps,
The Titan adversary’s clutch he bears;
His march is a battle and a pilgrimage.
Life’s evil smites, he is stricken with the world’s pain:
A million wounds gape in his secret heart.
He journeys sleepless through an unending night;
Antagonist forces crowd across his path;
A siege, a combat is his inner life.
Even worse may be the cost, direr the pain:
His large identity and all-harbouring love
Shall bring the cosmic anguish into his depths,
The sorrow of all living things shall come
And knock at his doors and live within his house;
A dreadful cord of sympathy can tie
All suffering into his single grief and make
All agony in all the worlds his own.
He meets an ancient adversary Force,
He is lashed with the whips that tear the world’s worn heart;
The weeping of the centuries visits his eyes:
He wears the blood-glued fiery Centaur shirt,
The poison of the world has stained his throat.
In the market-place of Matter’s capital
Amidst the chafferings of the affair called life
He is tied to the stake of a perennial Fire;
He burns on an unseen original verge
That Matter may be turned to spirit stuff:
He is the victim in his own sacrifice.
The Immortal bound to earth’s mortality
Appearing and perishing on the roads of Time
Creates God’s moment by eternity’s beats.
He dies that the world may be new-born and live.
-Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (Book 6 - Canto 2)
Again, one of the esoteric messages, behind The Holy Cross of the Christian faith, is the ideal that the ego ‘I’ should be destroyed - that is, cross (destroy) the ego. In fact, Lord Jesus very clearly emphasizes that,
Καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸν ὄχλον σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι.
(
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
) Greek Reference:: Holy Bible: Mark (08:34)
The Pulpit Commentary reads: " He called unto him the multitude with his disciples. This shows that there was an interval between what had just taken place and what is now recorded. Our Lord now, without any further special reference to St. Peter, delivers a lesson of universal application; although, no doubt, he had Peter in his mind. If any man would (εἴ τις θέλει) come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. This self-denial ought to extend to everything, even to life itself, which we ought to be willing to resign, if need be, for the sake of Christ. Take up his cross. It is as though he said, "Let him take up his cross, as I have borne my cross, that I might be the standard-bearer and Leader of all cross-bearers - I, who carried the cross on which I was to be crucified to the mount of Calvary." St. Luke (Luke 9:23) adds the words (καθ ἡμέραν), "daily:" "let him take up his cross daily;" thus showing that "every day," and often "at every hour," something occurs which it becomes us to bear patiently and bravely, and so on continually through our whole life. He takes up his cross who is crucified to the world. But he to whom the world is crucified follows his crucified Lord. This cross assumes various forms; such as persecution and martyrdom, affliction and sorrow of whatever kind, appointed by God; temptations of Satan, permitted by God for our trial, to increase our humility and virtue, and to make brighter our crown".
The Cross is also one of the greatest symbols reminding to humanity the value and importance of sacrifice and love for humanity. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi, highlights the spiritual significance of the Cross:,
“Christ is the ego. The Cross is the body. When the ego is crucified, and it perishes, what survives is the Absolute Being (God),(cf. “I and my Father are one”) and this glorious survival is called Resurrection”
Καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τὸν ὄχλον σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς Εἴ τις θέλει ὀπίσω μου ἐλθεῖν, ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἀράτω τὸν σταυρὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀκολουθείτω μοι.
(
Kai proskalesamenos ochlon syn
tois mathētais autou eipen
autois Ei tis
thelei opisō mou elthein aparnēsasthō heauton kai aratō ton
stauron autou kai akoloutheitō moi
) Greek Reference:: Holy Bible: Mark (08:34)
The Pulpit Commentary reads: " He called unto him the multitude with his disciples. This shows that there was an interval between what had just taken place and what is now recorded. Our Lord now, without any further special reference to St. Peter, delivers a lesson of universal application; although, no doubt, he had Peter in his mind. If any man would (εἴ τις θέλει) come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. This self-denial ought to extend to everything, even to life itself, which we ought to be willing to resign, if need be, for the sake of Christ. Take up his cross. It is as though he said, "Let him take up his cross, as I have borne my cross, that I might be the standard-bearer and Leader of all cross-bearers - I, who carried the cross on which I was to be crucified to the mount of Calvary." St. Luke (Luke 9:23) adds the words (καθ ἡμέραν), "daily:" "let him take up his cross daily;" thus showing that "every day," and often "at every hour," something occurs which it becomes us to bear patiently and bravely, and so on continually through our whole life. He takes up his cross who is crucified to the world. But he to whom the world is crucified follows his crucified Lord. This cross assumes various forms; such as persecution and martyrdom, affliction and sorrow of whatever kind, appointed by God; temptations of Satan, permitted by God for our trial, to increase our humility and virtue, and to make brighter our crown".
The Cross is also one of the greatest symbols reminding to humanity the value and importance of sacrifice and love for humanity. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi, highlights the spiritual significance of the Cross:,
“Christ is the ego. The Cross is the body. When the ego is crucified, and it perishes, what survives is the Absolute Being (God),(cf. “I and my Father are one”) and this glorious survival is called Resurrection”
In fact the term "Crucifixion" is etymologically derived from Latin word "cruce" which means a "cross". In ancient times, globally across cultures, it was a common practice to hang people as capital punishments. The mystic symbolism of such Crucifixion is very concisely summarized by Dr. Franz Hartmann according to whom:
"The cross represents terrestrial life, and the crown of thorns the sufferings of the soul within the elementary body, but also the victory of the spirit over the elements of darkness. The body is naked, to indicate that the candidate for immortality must divest himself of all desires for terrestrial things. The figure is nailed to the cross, which symbolizes the death and surrender of the self-will, and that it should not attempt to accomplish anything by its own power, but merely serve as an instrument wherein the Divine will is executed. Above the head are inscribed the letters: I. N. R. J. whose most important meaning is: In Nobis Regnat Jesus (Within ourselves reigns Jesus). But this signification of this inscription can be practically known only to those who have actually died relatively to the world of desires, and risen above the temptation for personal existence; or, to express it in other words, those who have become alive in Christ, and in whom thus the kingdom of Jesus (the holy love-will issuing from the heart of God) has been established".
Again, the name "Christ" also has deep esoteric significance. It is derived from the Greek term "Kristos" which corresponds to the Hebrew term "Messias" meaning the "anointed" or "purified" - a title associated with prophets and saint-gurus. Of course, from a yogic perspective, the Christ refers to the Divine Messaias within us not outside of us. In other words, it is the अन्तर्यामि ब्रह्मन् (antaryāmi brahman - indwelling divinity) within us.
Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain,
Unless within thyself it be set up again
-Angelus Silesius
On this sacred day, let us all whole-heartedly, contemplate on the unparalleled sacrifice of Lord Jesus the Savior and sincerely thank & pray at His Holy Feet and rest assure we shall be saved. As the saying goes, “more things are wrought by prayers than this world dreams of”. An in fact, Jesus does answer our prayers. As testified in the Holy Bible
kai eipen autō Amēn soi legō sēmeron met’ emou esē en tō Paradeisō
)Greek Reference:: Holy Bible: Luke (23:43)
καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ἀμήν σοι λέγω, σήμερον μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἔσῃ ἐν τῷ Παραδείσῳ.
(
kai eipen autō Amēn soi legō sēmeron met’ emou esē en tō Paradeisō
Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise
)Greek Reference:: Holy Bible: Luke (23:43)
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