At certain times, God-realized teachers say things that are difficult to hear, and Jesus is no exception. Rather than recoil from his uncomfortable words, we would do well to prayerfully and wisely wrestle with them so that they might bless and guide us on our journey. If God and Guru don’t occasionally disturb us, we are not growing. Here, read the words of Jesus, from Mark 9:47-48:
“If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.”
My first thought about these words from Jesus is that he is communicating a very important truth: we live in a just universe. We reap what we sow. Karma is real. Everything we say and do matters and echoes into the future. Jesus is using very strong language to wake us up to the consequences of our choices, and moreover, to save us from future suffering. Today we might say that he is using tough love on his followers.
Secondly, Jesus used the term “Gehenna” as a metaphor that would have been easily recognizable to the people of his day. Gehenna was a frequently-burning garbage dump outside the city of Jerusalem which was populated by disease-carrying rodents and varmints of every kind. It was not a place you and I would like to visit. My point is this: Gehenna was not a place of punishment created by God. Rather, it was MAN-MADE. We, not God, create the experience of hell. Whenever we are gripped by fear, anger, or despair, we are in a hellish state, a Gehenna of our own making. This is karma! Jesus uses strong words and imagery to shock us out of our complacency, to empower us so that we can live our lives from a place of heavenly consciousness.
Tragically, unenlightened Christian writers from the Middle Ages have interpreted Jesus’ words in such a way that God became a medieval torturer. This is not the God of Jesus! Jesus’ God is love, only love. Gregory of Nyssa, a 4th century saint in both Catholic and Orthodox Churches, stated, “In the end, everyone will be saved.” Love wins! Karma, in whatever form it takes, is not a punishment handed down from a punitive god, but rather a wake-up call to lead us in the direction of truth, beauty, and goodness. In this very same spirit, Yogananda describes the firm yet loving discipline of his guru Sri Yukteswar:
“I am immeasurably grateful for the humbling blows he dealt my vanity. I sometimes felt that, metaphorically, he was discovering and uprooting every diseased tooth in my jaw. The hard core of egotism is difficult to dislodge except rudely. With its departure, the divine finds at last an unobstructed channel. In vain it seeks to percolate through flinty hearts of selfishness.”
Divine Mother,
Beloved Guru,
If your words disturb
And disrupt me,
Keep at it
Until I pay attention.
