Greetings from SPARK. I'm Barnabas Tiburtius.
I'm the mentor of this initiative. You can
also subscribe to my YouTube channel, LIVINGSPARK.
In today's podcast. I plan to do an explanation
of an article from a book, “Self Empowering
wisdom – Volume 1”,
This particular article is very topical, in
as to what is happening in the world today.
The title of this article is “Called out
of Bondage”
in the recent past, we have witnessed a quite
an uproar arising out of the social consciousness
against the atrocities that are committed
against certain segment of society, the “Black
Lives Matter movement”, liberation of people
in Hong Kong and in the recent past, the genocide
in Myanmar, as well as the human suffering
due to the war in Yemen and Syria. This cannot
have a political solution.
The only way that we can avoid conflict, distinctions,
and segmentation of society, the fracturing
of society, is only through uplifting every
individual's consciousness to a new level.
from the political leaders to every common
man.
I take three stories from sacred scriptures
to give you an example of what is transformation.
The first story is the story of the Exodus,
in which Moses liberates the people from the
slavery of Egypt, into a promised land.
This is not a straightforward process. There
is a lengthy process involved.
And God instructs Moses that every family
should prepare a Passover feast, where in,
a sacrificial lamb has to be prepared, a lamb,
which is less than one year old, without any
blemish and should be nourished by the family
for 14 days.
This is the preparation, the sacrificial lamb
represents every individual.
So we go through a period of purification
before our self is made holy. Sacrifice means
to make holy. It has got a Latin root. Blood
of the lamb is smeared on the doorpost so
that the people of Israel can be demarked
from the others, who are still in darkness
in spiritual darkness.
Then they have to consume the flesh, without
any waste.
This is to give them the physical and spiritual
nourishment to face a long and arduous journey
through the desert into the promised land.
This is a travel through the darkness before
they come into light.
This same sacrificial lamb archetype is mapped
on to Christ in his life, where he is sacrificed
on the cross for the salvation of the human
race.
Basically there are two misunderstandings;
one is a universal salvation, just by the
act of Christ on the cross, dying and the
second one was a disappointment among the
Jews that he was not a messiah, liberator
from the Roman suppression.
What happens after Jesus death is very important.
After three days in the tomb, He resurrects,
but the process of resurrection is narrated,
as he went down into hell and came back.
The meaning of this is, unless you conquer
darkness you can't become a liberator or a
truly spiritual person. So even Christ is
subject to this particular process so that
every one of us could understand what is involved.
That is why the apostles who are still very
much in the material realm, when they visit
the tomb they say “the body is not there”
for them Christ was all nothing else but the
body.
Mary Magdalene, who had a slightly higher
insight sees Jesus in the garden, and tries
to hold on to him, but Jesus says, “Mary
do not hold me, for I am not yet whole”.
The spiritual manifestation or spiritual transformation
is a process that takes place in various stages.
This transformation, ultimately leads to transcendence
to the highest level of consciousness.
The third narrative is the narrative of Nachiketa,
whose father wanting to become a Sanyas, offering
all his wealth to the people. But Nachiketa.
being a very observant boy, he sees that his
father is offering all old things and sickly
cows,.and so he asks his father “will you
also offer me”, to which, unwittingly, his
father says, Yes, I will do it. And so he
is sent down to Yama, but Yama is not there
for three days.
And so he has to wait, the gate of the Kingdom
of Yama, which is underworld.
And then Yama comes and then apologies is
saying that “I'm very sorry for holding
up for three days, but having been here I
will grant you three boons.”
The first boon is very important from our
perspective today, in this talk
Yama says ‘Ask me three boons: and Nachiketa
says first “when I go back let my father recognize
me without animosity.”
If Nachiketa goes back in his original body
or original form, there will be no problem,
for his father to recognize him, he will only
be too glad. There will be no animosity because
his father knows he's made a mistake.
But every transformation involves a new manifestation.
So, this new manifestation will not be seen
by ordinary people.
So also you see that in the case of Jesus.
He is not recognized by many people including
his apostles till he explicitly tells them.
These are the themes I have narrated, along
with a number of quotes from Joseph Campbell,
Carl Jung, The Bible and Kathoupanishad. Read
the full article in my book, and support me
by buying the book.
And thank you for watching and listening.
