The
Sun rises in the East, every morning.
This
is a statement we all religiously believe in.
And
yet, from a scientific point of view, every part of the sentence is
changeable – Sun is a name given by us, therefore, is not true, it does not
rise, it is the Earth that turns around to face it, the concept of East is our
own fixation and it is not every morning that we turn around to face it, but
when we turn to face it, is called the morning.
But,
yet, the rising Sun is a splendour. It
reboots the energy in the living beings.
It is the Sustainer of life, with its message that there is dawn after
the darkest hours.
So
also is the case with the rising of the Son of God.
Where
is the question of death for the Son of God, when there could not be a death of
God itself?
Then
what happens to his statement that he and his Father are one?
And
did not the Son of Man himself say that ‘he shall be raised from the dead’, and
not that, ‘he shall rise from the dead himself’?
Did
he not himself say that it was not for him to grant who should sit at his right
or at his left, but for those for whom it had been prepared by his Father?
He
was also the very person who asked one not to be afraid of those who can kill
the body but not the spirit.
The
spirit never dies. Hence, there need not
be any resurrection, for the spirit.
It
is the earthly ones who think that there is a resurrection. They are strongly rooted in their desires and
beliefs that they do not understand his true statements.
Bernard
Shaw says in his preface to the play ‘Androcles and the lion’ :
“The first common mistake to
get rid of is that mankind consists of a great mass of religious people and a
few eccentric atheists. It consists of a huge mass of worldly people, and a
small percentage of persons deeply interested in religion and concerned about
their own souls and other peoples'; and this section consists mostly of those
who are passionately affirming the established religion and those who are
passionately attacking it, the genuine philosophers being very few. …The
passionately religious are a people apart; and if they were not hopelessly
outnumbered by the worldly, they would turn the world upside down, as St. Paul
was reproached, quite justly, for wanting to do…... Unless a religious turn in ourselves has led us to seek the
little Societies to which these rare birds belong, we pass our lives among
people who, whatever creeds they may repeat, and in whatever temples they may
avouch their respectability and wear their Sunday clothes, have robust
consciences, and hunger and thirst, not for righteousness, but for rich feeding
and comfort and social position and attractive mates and ease and pleasure and
respect and consideration: in short, for love and money. To these people one
morality is as good as another provided they are used to it and can put up with
its restrictions without unhappiness; and in the maintenance of this morality
they will fight and punish and coerce without scruple. They may not be the salt
of the earth, these Philistines; but they are the substance of civilization;
and they save society from ruin by criminals and conquerors... And as they
know, very sensibly, that a little religion is good for children and serves
morality, keeping the poor in good humor or in awe by promising rewards in
heaven or threatening torments in hell, they encourage the religious people up
to a certain point: for instance, if Savonarola only tells the ladies of
Florence that they ought to tear off their jewels and finery and sacrifice them
to God, they offer him a cardinal's hat, and praise him as a saint; but if he
induces them to actually do it, they burn him as a public nuisance”.
The worldly wise that we are,
mix up philosophy, spirituality and religion with our material demands and make
a convenient cocktail. It is therefore heady
to discuss poverty during a grand gala dinner at five star hotels and feel
sympathy for the downtrodden, sitting on silver thrones, without ever being
capable of turning a single stone to change the plight. For such of us, the resurrection of some
distant spirit to save humanity comes in handy, to fulfill our dreams for a
better world, without making our own hands murky by meddling with the lives of
these desolate beings.
Thus, it is our earthliness
that once in a while or once in a year yearns to turn to this ‘Easter’ for sustenance.
The same holds true in
matters of all other celebrations of births and victories, carried out under
any other banner of religion or organization.
The truth being forgotten
is that the ideal or spirit shines always, never abated, never crucified.
And for those who even
today state with conviction that truth is in being wise and wisdom is in being
circumspect, for them the dying on the cross and rising from the dead will be
great Miracles.
And let us hear Bernard
Shaw himself on the Miracles as such (from the same source - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4004/4004-h/4004-h.htm#link2H_4_0029
)
“If it could be proved today
that not one of the miracles of Jesus actually occurred, that proof would not
invalidate a single one of his didactic utterances; and conversely, if it could
be proved that not only did the miracles actually occur, but that he had
wrought a thousand other miracles a thousand times more wonderful, not a jot of
weight would be added to his doctrine. And yet the intellectual energy of
sceptics and divines has been wasted for generations in arguing about the
miracles on the assumption that Christianity is at stake in the controversy as
to whether the stories of Matthew are false or true. According to Matthew
himself, Jesus must have known this only too well; for wherever he went he was
assailed with a clamor for miracles, though his doctrine created bewilderment.”
Which
is the Son of Man that has to rise, we decide.
