Today is the Western New Year, marking the 2023rd appearance anniversary of Jesus Christ. This is a blissful day for the followers of Jesus Christ. We are observing this New Year by remembering God. Jesus Christ used to address the Supreme Personality as GOD – having formed the word ‘GOD’ with the notion that ‘G’ stands for ‘Generator’, ‘O’ for ‘Operator’ and ‘D’ for ‘Destroyer’. According to Vedic literature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna’s mode of passion incarnation is Lord Brahma (the generator) who, by Krishna’s order, created the various living entities in the material universe. Sri Krishna’s mode of goodness incarnation is Lord Vishnu (the operator), who is the maintainer of the entire universe. Sri Krishna’s mode of darkness incarnation is Lord Shiva (the destroyer), who by the Lord’s will destroys the ignorance of the living entities in the entire universe.
Until we conquer the three modes of material nature (by engaging our senses in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna), we will not be able to deliver ourselves from the miserable cycle of birth and death. Consequently, we will be forced to be born into different bodies (of 8,400,000 different species) according to our karma.
Seeing our miserable condition, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna sends his messengers to liberate us from our illusionary attachment to this material world. Jesus Christ is one of those messengers. Churches have been established (and continue to be established) to bring peace and happiness into people’s lives, and for people to remember and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Although we claim to be followers of Jesus, we misbehave by eating meat, and consuming intoxicating substances. By engaging in these activities, instead of making Jesus Christ happy, we are in fact putting him in distress. The instructions Jesus gave us for establishing peace in our lives were that we should not kill any living entity – ‘thou shall not kill’. Jesus Christ also addresses the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna – the protector of cows. Nowadays, in the name of following Jesus, his so-called followers are killing and eating cows. We do not become followers of Jesus just by building churches, we must adhere to all the principles he taught us to truly be his follower.
To establish the principles of religiosity, The Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna sends his representatives at various times into this material would, created by His illusionary energy. The nature of the material world is that everyone wants to enjoy themselves no matter the cost. We have accepted this material nature of exploitation and rejected our eternal nature of devotional practice. This mood of enjoyment is our root cause of our distress/suffering.
537 years ago, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna appeared in the womb of Mother Saci as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (in Navadwip, Mayapur) to deliver us from this miserable and mundane world, and to take us to the eternally blissful abode, Sri Vrindavan. He brought the transcendental divine loving wealth of Goloka Vrindavan down to this world by condensing it into the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. Without discriminating between caste and creed, He instructed everyone to chant the Mahamantra. Accordingly, we should leave identifying people by caste and creed as a thing of the past and treat everyone (regardless of their faith) as eternal servants of the Lord and take shelter of the Mahamantra through chanting both individually and congregationally.
If we do this, then we can establish pure love for Sri Krishna (the embodiment of eternal peace and bliss) within our hearts, and as a result, we can become, and make the entire world, peaceful and blissful.
In conclusion, if anyone wants to please the messengers of the Lord and indeed the Lord Himself, they must respect and have compassion for living beings. They should honour food which is offer-able to the Lord (such as leaves, flowers, fruits, water, and milk), and please the Lord with our activities. When the Lord is happy, then we will feel immense happiness and will also be able to make others happy. There will be amicable relationship with one another. Today, I pray to Jesus Christ – the Son of God, to please give us the potency to establish an amicable society where everyone lives peacefully and blissfully.
B. B. Bodhayan
Sri Gopinath Gaudiya Math (President)
1/01/2023