Sai Baba on Christmas

(A short Essay)

Christmas for many of us is more than a celebration of the birth of Lord Jesus.  It is the time of year, perhaps, when we reflect on the impact of the life and teachings of the Master Christ.  The followers of Jesus eventually became known as Christians—practitioners of Christianity, the largest religion in the world, followed by Islam, and then by Hinduism.

According to Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, “The Great Teachers belong to mankind.  It is wrong to believe that Jesus belongs only to the Christians and that Christmas is a Holy festival for the West only.  To accept one of them as one’s own and discard the rest as belonging to others, is a sign of pettiness.  Christ, Rama, Krishna—they are for all men everywhere.”

Though Christmas lights sparkle on all continents and gifts are exchanged as symbols of love, friendship, and duty, how many hearts are full of joy at this time of the year?  How many of us really emulate the actions of Lord Jesus?  Frankly, some days I do.  Other days I don’t.  And the Christmas season can become a tedious round of have-to-attend events, and have-to-do chores.

“Jesus was a master born for a purpose, the mission of restoring love, charity and compassion in the heart of man,” Sai Baba explained.  The mad rush of day-to-day life might make us forget why we were born.  So Christmas is a time to reflect on and to remember the purpose of our own existence, and our own mission as children of God. 

Puttaparthi Sai explained, “Jesus had no attachment to the self; he never paid heed to sorrow or to pain, joy or gain; he had a heart that responded to the call of anguish, the cry for peace and brotherhood.  He went about the land preaching the lesson of love, and poured out his life as a libation in the sacrifice to humanity.”

And, in the words of the Poorna Avatar, Christmas reminds us that we are a world family, “All faiths are inter-related and mutually indebted to each other for the principles they teach, and the disciplines they recommend.  The Vedic Religion was the first in time; Buddhism which appeared about 2,500 years ago was its son; Christianity, which was influenced by the Orient, was its grandson.  And Islam, which has the Prophets of Christianity as its base was like the great-grandson.  All have Love as the fundamental discipline of the mind, in order to chasten it and merge man with the Divine.”

How could the infant born in the humble setting of an animal stable, come to be known throughout the world if not by Divine design?  Sai Baba noted that first Jesus thought of himself as separate from God, next Jesus saw himself as the son of God, but at the end of his Self Realization he said, “I and my Father are One.”  The process of moving from humanity to divinity took rigorous introspection.  According to Sai Baba, “Jesus wandered purposefully in lonely places for 12 long years, engaging himself in study, spiritual exercises and meditation on God.”

His life was certainly his message.