Welcome to the Purely Prabhupada YouTube channel. This video series is called “Reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” My name is Kamra devi dasi, and I am a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
This is the eighth video of the series. It is called, “Lord, forgive them.”
When I was a teenager, it became a burning desire of mine to understand what it was that Jesus understood that the others did not, when he beseeched the Lord, “Please forgive them, they understand not what they do.” I had, with great emotion, at the age of 17, declared it to be the goal of my life, to fully know what Jesus had expressed in these famous words preceding the crucifixion. On my professional website, WorkofanAngel.com, I have an essay that I wrote several years ago, describing the events in more detail. It is titled “Epiphany.”
The Lord is situated in everyone’s heart. He knows all our thoughts, all our desires, all of our actions. When we sincerely want to come to Him, He sends His pure representative to show us the way to attain Him. I was blessed to be able to become a student of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who at great personal difficulty, at a very advanced age, came to the West to bring the brilliant light of the topmost Vedic literatures, and to show by example how to develop devotion to God. By his grace, and by the grace of the Lord Himself, I have been granted an understanding of that question that burned in my heart for so many years.
First, it is the nature of the soul to be active. Without proper guidance, or by refusal of proper guidance, the soul will be forced to act helplessly according to his situation in the modes of material nature, dictated by the material energy.
Bg. 3.5 tells us, “Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.”
So, the choices of the soul are really only two, either be aligned with the modes of material nature, the illusory energy of the Lord, and suffer the reactions to the actions performed under that allegiance, or, to become aligned with the Lord by the grace of His pure representative, and become freed from the material energy with its concomitant sufferings and go back to the Kingdom of God. In other words, if one chooses to be puppeted by the Lord’s illusory energy, thinking that he is the enjoyer of this material world, he is forced to act helplessly under that illusion and suffers the results of his every action. But if one aligns with the Lord, he gradually becomes freed from illusion, and does not need to suffer reactions of sinful actions, provided he follows the proper guidance. Whatever activities such a person performs are ultimately beneficial for him and others. It is a very sad thing to witness the living being making a choice that only creates suffering for himself and others, but one who is in ignorance is forced on this inauspicious path. Jesus was crying out to the Lord to be merciful upon these people, because they could not understand the suffering they were bringing upon themselves by their actions upon him and the way they were conducting their lives in general. He was crying out to God on their behalf, due to his great compassion upon them.
The soul has to be engaged in Godly works under the guidance of one who is dear to the Lord and who has seen the truth in order for there to be auspiciousness. Otherwise, the soul is forced to act helplessly under the unrelenting forces of the modes of material nature, with only inauspicious results.
Another point is that to have the association of a great soul like Jesus Christ can either be extremely beneficial or extremely detrimental. Extremely beneficial if one submissively hears spiritual truth from such a teacher, applies it as a regular function, and reciprocates by offering some proper service. Or extremely detrimental, if an ill-motivated, envious person commits some offense to that Godly personality. The servants of the Lord who teach the science of devotional service to those who are faithful and non-envious are very, very dear to Him, and the Lord takes very seriously offenses to such a personality. Jesus was crying out to the Lord, knowing that only his prayers could save them from the many sinful reactions they were accruing by their attacks upon him.
A third and more minor point to note is that we can only forgive what has been done to us. We cannot forgive someone for crimes committed to someone else. Even a great personality like Jesus Christ could only address what was being done to him. The criminal must beg forgiveness personally from those he has affected. In the Vedic literatures, we have the story of King Ambarish and the sage Durvasa Muni. Even the Lord Himself could not forgive the offenses made by Durvasa Muni to the great king, and sent him to beg forgiveness from the king himself. And the king, being a great devotee of Lord Sri Krsna, did not hesitate to free the sage from the results of his offenses that were so actively pursuing him.
Srila Prabhupada brought the highest teachings to the western world how to conduct our lives in devotion to God for the greatest of all results, returning to the Kingdom of God. It is through my affiliation with His Divine Grace, my dedication to his teachings, mood, and mission, that I am able to understand the teachings of Jesus Christ more fully, and I am eternally grateful to him for giving me these deep understandings and many, many more, and saving me from the downward spiral of materialistic life in which I was helplessly caught.
We have many of Srila Prabhupada’s books available at PurelyPrabhupada.com. We hope that you might be pleased to explore these topmost transcendental teachings…..
