Self-Enquiry Purifies You

Sri Lakshmana Swamy

Q: You have previously said that Jesus was no different from any other jnani, and that after his bodily death no grace could be given through him. When then did he give his disciples a particular form of ritual worship to do (the eucharist) and tell them to do it in remembrance of him?

LS: The word jnani means an enlightened one whose mind is dead. He is the Supreme Self, one without a second. All jnanis are the same self; you cannot differentiate between them by referring to their bodies. You, due to ignorance, think that jnanis have bodies and differentiate between them. The error lies in you.

God came in the form of Jesus to shower his grace on disciples. After his bodily death how will the grace flow friom the dead body? After his bodily death the grace flows from the Self. So the Self itself is grace. As the Self is everywhere, his grace is also everywhere. If you do a particular form of puja and remember him, your mind will become still. It can then dive in and realize the Self which has no name and no form and which is eternal peace and bliss. The real Jesus is ever-present. He is within you. He never left you. He is the Self.

Q: Christians believe that Jesus' death on the cross makes him a unique jnani. As Jesus says in the Bible, his blood is "poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins". Does this have any significance? That is, does the Christian belief that Jesus' death on the cross atones for the sin make him unique?

LS: The crucifixion has a symbolic meaning. The cross signifies the body and Jesus signifies the min. At the crucifixion Jesus, the mind, died, and from that time on he emanates only the glorious Self, which is God. Self-enquiry alone will purify you, never the blood of a jnani. No one had their sins wiped out when Ramana Maharshi bled after his many operations. Mahatma Gandhi's disciples were not saved from anything when he was shot and killed. It is the same with Jesus; his death and blood saves no one.

Q: Having attained Self-realization you no longer have a mind or a body. No doubt Jesus was the same, but some Christians feel that he was unique because his physical body actually rose from the dead. After his death he ate and drank with his disciples, they touched his physical form, and later they saw him rise bodily into heaven. Some Christians believe that this shows that the ultimate state of Self-realization is not leaving behind the body and the mind, but for a pure body and mind to be given eternal life in the Self. Could this be true? Jesus himself speaks of a universal resurrection in the Bible.

LS: The jnani is not the body and he is not the mind, so it is not important what happens to that body after death. He may leave the body behind or it may disappear into the sky. It was Jesus' destiny that his body disappear into the sky. The same thing happened to Tukaram whose body also disappeared into the sky. People want superstition and never want the Truth.