IN RESPONSE TO ANGSUMAN CHAKRABORTY'S COMMENT ABOUT THE UNREALISED SPIRITUAL STATUS OF JESUS CHRIST WHEREIN HE HAS CITED BIBLICAL TEXTS TO PROVE HIS POINT
These are not the words of Christ. They are future additions as is the bulk of Christian doctrine which is entirely separate from the original teachings of Christ which are lost to history or are, perhaps, traceable in early Christian texts. Remember, there were no less than 30 Gospels to begin with.
The disciples of the Master, that is, the Apostles, did not quite comprehend his universal message and conflated his precepts with the Jewish traditional teachings of the Old Testament. The result was a confused mass of developing theology which has been one way or the other ascribed to Christ where significant doubts remain as to their authorship, as remain doubts about the historicity of Christ himself. However, nothing definite can be ascertained one way or the other about the historical Christ, and Swamiji, hence, entertained his own doubts, as you have rightly pointed out from the text of 'The Master As I saw Him', I reckon, and the ceaseless debate continues as to how much of Church doctrine may duly be ascribed to Christ himself, assuming for the hour that such a one did exist in some personality form or the other.
Therefore, I tend to go with the realisations of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda in this matter as to the spiritual Christ and his Avatarhood about which there are clear references in 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' and 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', in multiple places in the latter. As to whether they were wrong in their suppositions about the spiritual status of Jesus Christ, I cannot comment, being of feeble understanding myself. I, therefore, have reposed faith in their words while maintaining my reservations about the Church doctrines ascribed to Christ, as in the Holy Bible. For my part I go with the assertions of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda in this regard while rejecting the Church doctrines about Christ.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : 'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci
These are not the words of Christ. They are future additions as is the bulk of Christian doctrine which is entirely separate from the original teachings of Christ which are lost to history or are, perhaps, traceable in early Christian texts. Remember, there were no less than 30 Gospels to begin with.
The disciples of the Master, that is, the Apostles, did not quite comprehend his universal message and conflated his precepts with the Jewish traditional teachings of the Old Testament. The result was a confused mass of developing theology which has been one way or the other ascribed to Christ where significant doubts remain as to their authorship, as remain doubts about the historicity of Christ himself. However, nothing definite can be ascertained one way or the other about the historical Christ, and Swamiji, hence, entertained his own doubts, as you have rightly pointed out from the text of 'The Master As I saw Him', I reckon, and the ceaseless debate continues as to how much of Church doctrine may duly be ascribed to Christ himself, assuming for the hour that such a one did exist in some personality form or the other.
Therefore, I tend to go with the realisations of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda in this matter as to the spiritual Christ and his Avatarhood about which there are clear references in 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' and 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', in multiple places in the latter. As to whether they were wrong in their suppositions about the spiritual status of Jesus Christ, I cannot comment, being of feeble understanding myself. I, therefore, have reposed faith in their words while maintaining my reservations about the Church doctrines ascribed to Christ, as in the Holy Bible. For my part I go with the assertions of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda in this regard while rejecting the Church doctrines about Christ.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : 'The Last Supper' by Leonardo da Vinci
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