In the last post I claimed that Christ, the son of God, and Atman refer to the same “reality”.
But then, you may argue, Christ should be in every one, available for everyone to be it, as the Self, or ATMAN.
This is just the case: Christ is our truest nature, our real Self, available to everyone, in every moment.
But, you could reply, that’s not what we were told.
That is because of a great mistake or mistranslation of the Gospels.
In the Gospel of John we were told exactly that, but the Church changed a sentence.
We should keep in mind that the Gospels were written as an initiatory text. The first adepts knew what Christ “was” when the read the text. Then, when Gospels became “mainstream”, they had to be adjusted to fit the public doctrine as it was being established.
Also remember that for more than a thousand years it was forbidden for christians to own and posses the Bible. So they couldn’t read it on their own but rather be informed by official priests (even though Jesus never established an institutional hierarchy).
Christians that were caught possessing a Bible were killed.
So, in John 1,9, we read:
“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world”.
It seems that Christ was coming to the world to give light to the people.
But the original phrase, in latin, is:
ERAT LUX VERA QUAE ILLUMINAT OMNEM HOMINEM VENIENTEM IN HUNC MUNDUM
Whose actual meaning is that “He (Christ) was the true light that enlightens every man that comes into the world”.
It is plain to see that “venientem” (plural) refers to “omen hominem”(plural), and not “lux” (singular).
It must be also said something about the verb. The imperfect tense in greek and latin refers to an action that began in the past but is not finished yet.
So “erat” means that it began in the past but it is still like this now, our past tense isn’t capable of giving us the same meaning, we should rather translate it as a present tense.
So: “Christ is the true light that enlightens every man that comes into the world”.
And here’s a point in common between the message of Christ and non duality: Shankara tells us Brahman and Atman, Jesus tells us that Christ and the Father are one.
Ans now we can understand when He said to his disciples and to pharisee (referring to the psalm 82, verse 6): “you are Gods”.
Going back to the Gospels, Saint John tells us that Christ is the true light that dwells in every man who comes in this world, it is our truest nature. And he also tells us that no matter how vast darkness is, it cannot overcome it.
So, assumed that Christ is the Real Self of every person, Gospels are a manual that guides everyone in discovering it and giving birth to their inner Christ.
What does this manual tell us? We will explore it in the next post.
*The photo was shot by Umberto Del Noce. All rights reserved.
Christ and Non Duality 