Celebrating Christmas – a yogi’s perspective

Aum namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Haribol!

So, I was asked to speak on Celebrating Christmas, a yogi’s perspective. Is that okay, or you want to do something else?

So, of course, first question is, “What is Christmas?” And like it or not, in the world in which we live, it means holiday. It means party time, food, drink (meaning booze, alcoholic drinks), means vacations, means revelry, having fun. Or not? Is that what everybody thinks? Pretty much. No? [Audience response.] Not in here. Well, I’m glad about that. The majority of people, that’s what they relate to, unfortunately, particularly more in the Western world in general.

The word holiday, you know it came from a very old English word, holy day, a day that was considered holy or sacred; and of course, most people, when they say the word holiday, they don’t think in that sort of framework. Christmas, of course, we understand is the celebration of the event of the birth of Jesus. In Hebrew, his name was Yeshua. That’s how they spoke, Yeshua. In both Hebrew and Aramaic, it was Yeshua. And he was called the Christ, which is actually the English word that was taken from Greek, Christos, and Christos was the Greek translation of a Hebrew word, Messiah. So Christ and the word Messiah literally mean the same thing. In the last so many hundreds of years, quite a few hundreds of years, the word Messiah has taken on a meaning that has been sort of overlaid on it by Christian theology, and when I say Christian theology, I’m speaking about the development of a particular religious idea.

But the word in Hebrew, Messiah, it actually referred to the anointed one. That’s what it meant, the anointed one. So, everybody’s going like, well, that could mean a lot of things, and most people think of it in one context only. But in the older biblical context, this Hebrew word, meaning the anointed one, was referring to a person who was consecrated with sacred oil for a divine role. This included temple priests. It included the king of the country who was meant to play a divine role, and a prophet, someone that spoke about spiritual tradition. So, all of them were called Messiah, so it didn’t have the kind of connotation that has been given in the last thousand years. In the time of Christ and before it had a different sort of application and meaning.

So, one may ask, well, how would somebody from the yogic or Vedic tradition, how would they look at this event? Would they consider it something to celebrate?

So, the yogis and saintly teachers in the Vedic tradition, since the most ancient of times, they would celebrate the appearance day, I mean, they would use that terminology translated into English. And they made it different than the idea of just birth. Birth was considered something that was forced upon you, largely due to your previous desires and karmic load you would be taking birth and experiencing certain fruits, both good and bad. Whereas there were personalities who appeared within this world, not because they were forced by laws of material nature, but they had some divine or great spiritual mission.

And so anybody that was considered a spiritual personality, who was bringing a message of spiritual enlightenment to the people of the world, doesn’t matter what tradition they came in, the ancient yogis would honour them all, like deeply honour, like in the ancient tradition, those who had embraced the spiritual path, they would actually even bow to such personalities. It’s not like they would just greet them. They would actually show them great reverence and supplication.

Even though they may not be from the same so-called tradition, there was the understanding that in different parts of the world and different traditions, that truth would be shared with different populations according to time, place, and circumstance. In Sanskrit, this is kala, desa, patra. According to the different circumstance, the culture of people, truth would be shared with them in a sensitive way. It’s not about being deceptive, it’s helping people move forward spiritually.

And the way in which such a sacred day would be celebrated by yogis is they would prepare a feast (this is an ancient tradition) to be offered, and then people partake in it as part of a spiritual glorification and a receiving of some form of blessing. And then a very important part of any celebration was people to gather together and engage in kirtan, the chanting of sacred sounds or the holy names of the Lord, as a way of deriving great benefit and honouring the person who brought such a message of spiritual enlightenment, upliftment, one may even say salvation, to be saved from the material condition.

So then the question, of course, that would follow is, “Was Jesus the Christ such a personality?” And so we’re talking about somebody who’s from a completely different tradition, who may never have encountered Christianity, for instance, especially in older times before, they would ask, what were the teachings of this person, because it’s by the words and their acts that we will know them. That was the way they would approach it. Nothing to do with, “Oh, which group do you belong to?” There wasn’t group think.

The Vedic followers and the yogis were notoriously non-sectarian. They had their own traditions, like your spiritual lineage may have some different practices and traditions than somebody else’s, but people didn’t identify as those practices, as those traditions. They looked at the spiritual message and the overall spiritual direction underneath. And so if somebody heard that there was some celebration of a great personality, they would ask, “Who is this personality?” And they would want to know primarily what was it that they taught.

Unfortunately, nowadays for a lot of people in the West, religion as a genuine spiritual path has sort of fallen out of fashion a little bit, and people have become a little bit shy to openly state things connected to different religious traditions publicly. That’s sort of beginning to change a bit again, but it’s actually quite unfortunate. And as a result of that, many people don’t really have a very good idea about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Not—there’s sort of like things that people sort of adopt and stuff, but there may not be a very deep or good understanding. And in many situations, the idea that somebody has of Jesus Christ and what it was that he was teaching is more like a meme than an actual understanding of who this person was and what it was that they were teaching and presenting.

And so, if we are to really pick apart this topic a little bit, celebrating Christmas, for a yogi to understand what it is that’s happening and whether they should participate, they would ask that question, “So what does this teacher—what’s the main thing this person is teaching?”

And of course, it’s rather unfortunate. My experience traveling in the world, even in countries that are predominantly Christian, when you ask people what is the principle, what’s the foundational teaching of Jesus Christ, my experience is that most people, more than half, will not know. They’ll get it wrong, as opposed to a minority, not a small, it’s quite a big minority, who will actually get it right. But even amongst those who get it right, when you ask to explain what that actually means, hardly anybody can talk about it.

And so, there was a situation—Jesus Christ was like massively radical. He was super radical in his time. He did things that was blowing people out, particularly those who were—

There was a group called the Pharisees. The Pharisees were like very learned people. Most people couldn’t read or write, so if you had the ability to read or write, that was like, whoa, that’s pretty far out. And in the Jewish tradition, these people, along with the temple priests, were very steeped in what they called the Torah or the law. They really studied it. They really picked it apart, because they wanted to excel, and they wanted to be able to clearly see when somebody is deviating.

And so, when Jesus Christ showed up, he was speaking with the common people. He spoke with everyone, but he was dealing more frequently with the common and uneducated people. And the things that he was proposing, many of the learned people found to be very challenging. And so there was an attempt by someone in a public gathering to trip him up, and they asked him the question, “What is the most important teaching in law?” So, this is like this ancient tradition, the one that you see in the Old Testament of the Bible. What is the principal teaching there above everything else? And he quoted from the Old Testament, but he specifically stated a number of times that this is foundational for what he is bringing to the world and what he is teaching. So I will read a quote:

“And Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul (or being) and with all thy mind. This is the first and the great commandment, and the second is like unto it, that thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [And then he said,] On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’” Matthew 22:37-40

That’s how foundational it was. The problem now, though, is, not only do many people not know this, they often quote the second one, to love your neighbour or your brother as yourself—this means as much as we love ourselves, loving ourself is always considered a bad thing. It’s not a good place to be because it’s self-centred, whereas true love means to be selfless. And so, when you place as much importance on others in the world as you are now currently placing on yourself, this will change you. This will transform you. You will become less self-centred, less selfish. And so, this was very important.

But with the first one, what does it mean? For instance, for a start, what is love? And what is this condition of being so deeply in love, to have fallen so deeply in love, that your whole mind, not part of your mind, your whole mind and your whole heart, your whole being is given to and absorbed in this experience of love? What is that? Do you know anybody that has attained it? How is it attained? How does it manifest in a person? What are the symptoms? These are like, wow! These are deep questions. Who should I go to to learn how to develop this, which was considered the foundation and most important of all teachings? Yet it’s not even really discussed. It’s people just, they tend to deal with it in somewhat of a superficial way.

In the Vedas, there is a whole part of the Vedas that is deeply steeped in this condition, the condition that is called prema, the highest form of transcendental love, of ecstatic love, where one is so utterly intoxicated, this is their life. This is their breath, this is their soul, this condition of love.

So, when you hear this, this teaching of the cultivation of such a profound condition of love, not only with a higher transcendent reality or God, but that overflows to all, what we would call his children, to all other living beings, because we are seeing them in relation to each other, but more especially to their source, to the Supreme Soul. And so, if one, if someone really feels deeply affectionate and what people might in this world might call love for someone, they will automatically show affection to those that are important to that person, won’t they?

I mean, you imagine, some guy’s trying to develop a relationship, for instance, with a woman who may be a single mom, and she’s got a child, and he comes to greet them, and the kid’s trying to get in the way, and he pushes the kid aside, hey, and then wants to hug the woman and kiss her maybe. What is she going to feel, that her child was just shoved out of the way? Right? It’s kind of like, whoa, hold on, we’re not doing this. Because there is a natural affection, a bond of affection there already.

And so when one grows in transcendental realization and enlightenment, they understand the nature of the love of the Supreme Soul for all his children. And so that impacts them. That heavily affects them. The love that they have for the Supreme Soul automatically overflows to all of their brothers and sisters.

So, when you hear that message—and this is foundational—it’s kind of like, okay, who’s going to complain about that? Who’s going to think that’s a bad idea, or there’s something wrong with that? Nobody would think there’s anything wrong with that, even an atheist who didn’t want to embrace any idea of God or a higher transcendental reality. The idea that there is something ideal to focus on, something of higher value, something of real transcendent wonder, that we should seek the path towards that which is better, and in doing that, to show great compassion and kindness and love for all living beings, not even just human beings, for all living beings. They wouldn’t object to that. They would think that that’s a pretty sterling idea. That’s a pretty good idea.

So, the idea of loving others, the idea of kindness, of caring and of compassion, the idea of serving something greater than oneself, everybody recognizes that this is desirable, that this is good. And of course, all actual yogis immediately perceive this. When they hear that this is the foundational teaching of this person, even without encountering them, they are already prepared to bow upon the ground to them and offer them the greatest of reverential respect, because they know there is nothing higher than this. And if a person is sharing such a message, they would be considered actually worshipable because it is such an important message for all of humanity.

Probably another kind of high-ranking question would be, “And so how do we look upon this world? And how should we look at this world?” I mean, right now, we’ve got the most extraordinary situation, where the planet and people are just being ravaged. People are just seen as a market to exploit, to extract money from, that there is absolutely no shame in studying all of your weaknesses and your psychology and designing these things [indicates phone] and all the apps that sit upon them to play on, to seek out your weaknesses, your tendencies to addiction and utilize it to keep you stuck on this thing so that you can be exploited. That’s the business model of those who manufacture the machines and all the software that runs on it. That’s their actual model. That’s what they’re doing.

They don’t want you using another person’s app. They want you using their app as much as possible, and so they’ll make it as addictive as possible to hold your attention, even though it harms you—even when they found, like a few years ago, that Instagram’s algorithm was so damaging for young women because it played upon their insecurities and their worries about body image, and it led to this catastrophic growth of eating disorders. You remember that? It was like a big scene. And then they were saying, well, they weren’t aware that it was doing that and everything. And it’s just absolutely not true. Of course they were aware. When somebody gets hooked on something, a false idea, and they go down that rabbit hole, they’ve got you forever. And this is what they’re also—this is one of the foundational design elements of AI, to suck you in and to exploit you no matter what.

So, when you look at the world, it’s kind of like—and then the fact that there’s such a terrible amount of unhappiness and mental health issues, because philosophies and ideas have been presented: the promise that material consumption will make you happy, that you will find happiness the more that you can consume, the more that you can engage with products and services. The promise is happiness.

I don’t know if—are they’re doing something different now? Their last major campaign for Coca-Cola, you got the top flipping and all the bubbles coming out, and the slogan was, “Open happiness.” It’s just like, oh my God, isn’t that criminal? You’re telling somebody that a sugary drink that’s loaded with caffeine and has all this carbon dioxide in it, that is happiness. Do you guys think that’s weird or what? If you or I got up and tried to say that, we’d probably be arrested for deceptive marketing. But Coca-Cola does it, and it’s not a big deal.

These are the types of promises that are made. And of course, the underlying effect is that everybody has become so thoroughly convinced that by material consumption, I will find happiness. I will fill up the emptiness in my heart.

So when I say, “How did Jesus Christ look upon the world? What did he teach about the nature of the world and life in this world?”—because that’s going to be really important to really get a handle on who this person is and what it is that they’re representing. Well, the way that he spoke of the world—when we use this word, “the world”, we’re not talking of the planet on which we are standing or some geographical or location in space, although that is there, what we’re specifically referencing is, “What is the world that you live in? What’s going on inside your head? What is your value system? What is it that’s driving you? What is it that’s dictating decisions that you’re making?” This pretty much determines what someone’s world is. So we understand, and in the way that Christ spoke of it, he spoke of it also as a, like a state of consciousness, what you’re absorbed in, whether that consciousness is an absorption in that which is material, or whether it’s an absorption in some higher spiritual or transcendental reality or truth.

In one verse, he states, “No man…” (and just in case anybody that’s watching this or anyone here doesn’t get it, man here means human. This is Old English, where “man” references human.)

“No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” Matthew 6:24

That’s a pretty extraordinary idea. Mammon refers to this world, to material existence, to wealth, to fame, the desire to be acknowledged, to be liked, to be worshipped. All of these kind of things fall into that category, all forms of material pursuit. And he says that one cannot serve God and mammon. And that’s just like, what? You mean I have to make a decision here? I have to make a choice about where my life is going to go? This is not a small time thing.

Unfortunately, there’s this whole trend that began or really became a little bit more prominent in the mid-60s with certain evangelical Christians in the US, the big tele-evangelists, where they started developing what was called (what was it called?) prosperity theology, the idea that if you really worship God and you’re pleasing to Him, then you’re going to get all the goodies. You’re going to have all the stuff. You’re going to have all the money. You’re going to be able to really enjoy the world.

Whereas in reality, his message was that one should not put their mind on worldly things. And the reason being that if one is utterly absorbed in worldly things, then one will not experience that condition called love for God.

In another verse, in another place, he made these statements:

“Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourself treasures in heaven [heaven being in a spiritual or a transcendental realm or dimension] where moth and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6 19:21

Have you heard that statement before? “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That thing which you value the most is going to be what takes over your consciousness. That’s what you are going to cry about. That’s what you are going to get upset about. That’s what you’re going to get elated about. And if it is things related to this world, it’s not condemned, but it just means, okay, that’s unfortunate. You’re in that headspace. And because of being in that headspace, you cannot experience the highest possible spiritual experience.

So, he often really sharply contrasted spiritual consciousness and material consciousness, how they were very different. He promoted a life of restraint and dispassion and, of course, spiritual focus. Do you know what dispassion means? It means don’t be overly passionate about stuff. Don’t get so worked up. Take it easy. It’s not necessarily evil to want things, some improvement in your life, but don’t lose the plot. Don’t let that dominate and dictate your life.

So, I’ll read a number of verses here, because it’s actually really mind-blowing when people hear what he stated. This was speaking before a very large gathering of people, just common people, right? Not big intellectuals or priests or anything. These are common people. And he said,

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body and what you will wear. Is life not more than food and the body more than the clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away— [I’m sorry] they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:25-27

 So we know this to be, this is part of the—especially in the modern world in which we live, where everybody gets so overwhelmed, and they’re so anxious and worrying about all these things. And a lot of it arises because we falsely think that we’re kind of in control of stuff. The reality is you’re not. All you can do in life is to do your best. You cannot guarantee the outcome of anything. So, this idea of always meditating on and worrying and thinking about and getting all upset about things related to what we will call material life; we’re told, let it go. Let it go.

“Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin.” Matthew 6:27-28

Spin means spinning yarn to make clothes.

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans [pagans here refers to those with no spiritual vision, those who are utterly materialist] for the pagans run after all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry for tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:28-34

Is this far out or not? Like seriously far out? This is an idea of how people should live. And if people actually adopted this mode of living, the world would not be in the disastrous shape that it is now. People would not be suffering from such mental crisis.

In Sanskrit, there is a word atmarama, and it was considered that one should aspire to become an atmarama. This was the result of spiritual growth. And it means one who is self-satisfied, one who is taking joy within. They are experiencing their spiritual nature, their connection with a higher spiritual reality, or God, or a higher Absolute Truth. And because they are living in that condition, they engage with the world as much as need be done, because we have a duty that comes with this body, with family. We take care of those things, but we’re not constantly chasing after that which will not bring us full happiness.

In the modern world, an atmarama, a self-satisfied person, would be an absolute disaster for the economy. If you had all these people that started just buying only what they actually needed and didn’t consume more than they actually had to, who could quite happily adopt a simple lifestyle, being more focused on an internal spiritual cultivation and relationship, the Prime Minister would be pulling his hair out. He doesn’t have any hair, does he? Because they’d be freaking out about what they call “consumer confidence.”

Consumer confidence mean when people are busily spending money, willy-nilly, racking up credit on the credit card, buying, traveling, doing all of these things, because then the economy is pumping. And when that happens, politicians get elected. When the economy is not happening, they tend to get kicked out. And so we have created a world in which the people are serving the economy rather than the economy serving the people. And it’s because of this different sort of focus.

And so for a yogi, when they hear these statements that I just read out, it would be just like, “Oh, he’s totally onto it. He has profound and deep understanding. This person is speaking on behalf of God, or a higher transcendent reality.” And they would feel great reverence for such a person.

So, it was really important that we actually have a bigger picture. And that bigger picture means that we prioritize our spiritual life. The tragedy for real spiritual teachers, the tragedy is this: We become so invested in this temporary covering, the body. I consider it me. It’s just astonishing how much time people spend in front of mirrors. Right or not? Just generally speaking, people spend a lot of time in front of mirrors or their phone with front-facing camera, really, really concerned about this temporary garment.

This temporary garment is going to go through phases. It is born. There is growth. It reaches maturity. On that process, there is often reproduction of—perpetuation of the species. Then it begins to dwindle, and it dies. Nothing else happens. That’s it. That’s the journey.

And if I become utterly invested only in the body and all of the products of the body as being everything, then death is absolutely a freak out, because I don’t have any appreciation that I don’t die, I cannot die, I will never die. I’m going to leave this body behind. It’s going to fall into disrepair through age or disease. It’s going to become uninhabitable. And the only thing I can guarantee in life is I am going to die.

I actually don’t die. My body does. And since I’m not the body, then I don’t die. I continue to live. Life is a symptom of the presence of this spiritual being.

But if we dedicate our whole life to the taking care of the body, and everything is about the products of the body, this is my whole world. Death is absolutely a disaster, because now you are removed from everything, and that removal is permanent. So it’s considered really problematic.

So another statement of Jesus Christ.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:36

These are heavy questions. But all the messaging that we’re getting is, what? You have to be fixated on the body. You have to be fixated on the experiences, the enjoyment, the stimulation of the body, and that’s everything.

So, a yogi would understand that the message of Jesus Christ, that he is challenging us to not conform to prevailing norms. And of course, the largest prevailing norm is materialism, that it’s only things of this world, it’s only matter, the material energy, that is of importance, and this is what we should be utterly focused on. In these things that I read, he’s totally challenging that idea, like big time. He encourages us to resist living a self-centred life oriented towards material gain and status. He encourages that we should seek higher truth and to try and live in that truth, that this is the actual path to happiness, to peace, not consumerism and materialism. That’s the foundational message.

And so it’s kind of like, for a yogi, it’s kind of like, “Okay, we’re having a celebration. I’m in. I don’t have to know more. I’m in.” And of course, I will celebrate with this understanding, and I will contemplate upon this message at this time and seek to become blessed by such an extraordinary divine personality, a totally spiritual personality.

Okay, so that’s the perspective of a yogi on celebrating Christmas. What do you think? I think it’s awesome. One of the really nice things about this, about actual spiritual growth, it really lifts people out of, away from, material life, or a materialistic life, a life that cannot bring you fulfillment and complete happiness. Just can’t.

Atoms—you can take an atom. An atom doesn’t contain blissfulness. It’s just a material object. And I can take material energy, and I can stuff it in my mouth and in my ears and my eyes and all the orifices of my body. I can rub it all over me. It doesn’t give me happiness. We develop kind of like an expectation that if I can just have this, I’ll become happy. But when I actually get it, when I actually do it, it wasn’t that big a deal. I convinced myself, “Oh, this is going to be far out. Aaah! It’s going to be awesome,” but after it’s all over and you got—

It’s kind of like, when you’re a kid, or you’re an adult, and you’re bringing the kids to the beach, what’s the back seat like? Everybody’s like, “Yaah!” They’re all excited and they’re all, like, this is going to be it. It’s like heaven. Then you go to the beach and everybody plays, and you have something to eat and people get sunburned. And then how are they on the way home? “Stop it, stop it, you’re pushing me.” “Shut up.” They’re all just going—I mean, that’s the product. The ride home is the fruit of the trip. But on the way there, there was the expectation that, “Wow!! It’s going to be like!!”— We always want to make it into—we can’t just take it easy and, Wow, that was nice.” It’s like we’ve got to turn it into, “Wow, that was SO AWSOME!!.” Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Emoji, emoji, emoji, emoji. Everybody’s into this exaggeration. It’s like, cool it. It’s not good for you. Not good for you. Growing spiritually will change all of that.

So, of course, we know that the most effective and efficient means for this transformation, this change of consciousness, to be able to begin to see things differently—and an added benefit is this is a form of spiritual nutrition. When you’re all chanting—like earlier we’re chanting, is it nice or what? And when you’re doing it, who’s thinking about the problems, the washing, the kids, the things you got, the money that you owe, something you’ve got to deal with, a family problem. You don’t think about any of this stuff. You just get lost in that space. And you feel uplifted. It touches you somewhere deeper inside, so it is like a spiritual nutrition for somebody that’s spiritually hungry.

Thank you very much.

So we will chant a little and then afterwards, if you have questions, we can try to deal with some questions.