By: Michael Ketterhagen
“Christ has no body, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
You are the eyes with which He looks compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good.
Yours are the hands; yours are the body.
Yours are the hands with which He blesses all the world.
Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on the world.
Christ has no body now on earth, but yours.”
--Teresa of Avila
“Ishvara pranidana,” is the Yoga Tradition’s name of the all-pervasive divinity of the universe, that life force (the breath/energy of life) within all of reality. We are to surrender to that living-giving Reality.
“Christ” is Christianity’s name for the loving, creative presence of God within the universe. It is also the title given to Jesus of Nazareth, that human being who lived about 2000 years ago in Palestine/Judaea, whom Christians commemorate as the risen Lord during this time of Easter.
Wonderfully, Teresa of Avila and the Yoga Tradition are saying the same thing about the all-pervasive divinity and the Christ.
Christianity says that Christ is the Word that was spoken and made flesh by the “unmanifest” Creator-God, the God who transcends all of physical and mental reality. Yoga says that the first manifestation of creation is in the expression of the sound “Om!” The utterance of Christ (the Word) or the emergence of the sound “Om!” are the same, if we understand that all of reality is one, if we understand that all of Reality is alive and “personal,” if we understand that there is only one creation, if we understand that all of reality flows from one Source, if we understand that no matter when it happened or how it happened all of us, all of life, was wished into existence.
In Christianity, that one expression of the Divine Source was manifested physically in the person of Jesus, the Nazarene. In Yoga, that one expression of the Divine Source of life was manifested physically in the personhood of every human at the moment of our birth in our mother’s womb. All of our life is filled with that divine power, that divine love.
The problem is we just don’t know this as consciously as we could. Because of that ignorance each tradition teaches different practices, like prayer, sacraments, or meditation, to get us in touch with our unity with the Divine. There is no separation from the Divine.
As Teresa of Avila says, the Christ (divine life) is not physically and mentally with us except in our own bodies. When we say “Hi” to another, it is Christ saying “Hi” to that person. When we faithfully practice joy, patience, peace, justified anger, concern for anyone and everyone, we are Christ acting in the physical world. When we do not pass judgment on someone who hurts us, we are the forgiving God/Christ/Divine Being at that moment. When we are happy for the goodness of others, or when we walk with someone who needs help or just a listening ear, or don’t make judgments about the people of different political parties, or when we treat kindly the criminal or the addict or the “indifferent” wealthy person, we are the Christ; we are the physical “Ishvara” on earth.
We have a great and powerful opportunity every time we act. We are God/Christ physically and mentally acting in a world that needs that divine presence and activity. We have an awesome, powerful life even though we may not be aware of it.
Alleluia!
I bow to the divinity within you!