28/03/2021
Passover and Easter
Loving and divine souls,
Let the choicest blessings of God and the masters be upon all of you. I take this opportunity to pray for you, and I send my best wishes on the occasion of Passover and Easter.
Passover is a special occasion for the Jews, and Easter is for those who love Christ. This year these two occasions fall between March 27 and April 4.
Passover is the major Jewish spring festival commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian servitude. It is a historical event with spiritual significance. The people of Israel lived as slaves in Egypt, but Moses relieved them from their miserable condition and brought them to the land of milk and honey.
Spiritually, every human being lives like a slave: a slave of the turbulent mind, ego, and powerful sense organs. Spiritual masters such as Moses teach us how to be free from their compelling force and live free in the land of love and devotion.
Good Friday and Easter are associated with Jesus, the incarnation of love, compassion, and forgiveness.
Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. It celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Good Friday is the Friday before the Easter Sunday that is commemorated as the crucifixion of Christ.
On Friday evening Jesus was crucified. He was resurrected early Sunday morning. Resurrection has several meanings: One is Christ’s rising from the dead; another is the rising of the dead at the Last Judgment.
Jesus demonstrated that he had conquered death. Death had no meaning to him as he was an immortal child of God. We all are children of God, the children of immortality ( amritasya putrah ). But what has happened to us? Living in ignorance and a wrong lifestyle, we suffer from fear of death and grope in the darkness. We must fearlessly roar like a lion. We must live with knowledge and love.
Resurrection is to restore to life, to revive, to practice, to remember, and to use. We should learn to live with love and revive this love in the minds and hearts of others. We should learn to remember our relationship with the Beloved.
The Holy Bible ( John 11:25–26) says, “ I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
We must intensify our love for God. We should bring new life into ourselves. This celebration reminds us to live with constant prayer. We should also practice forgiving others in our minds and hearts. We should remember the prayer of Jesus from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
These few days are very dear to me. I am praying for the entire creation and for all living beings to awaken, just as Mary Magdalene was awake to witness the divine resurrection.
I am praying for all of you, and I send my love to all of you.
With Love,
Prajnanananda
