By Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Source :
Spoken on 29 September 1982.
Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Maharaj: Do you know of Judas in the Christian teachings?
Disciple: Yes, he betrayed Jesus.
Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: When Jesus was praying in the garden before his crucifixion, Judas approached him with the scribes and priests in order to betray him by identifying that Messiah with a kiss. Suddenly, Jesus cast his glance towards Judas in such an impressive way — he penetrated Judas. Judas thought to himself, “I am caught; I shall be responsible for Jesus Christ’s demise, but still Jesus’ vision to me was something like: ‘I am exploiting you Judas. It is not that you are exploiting me. Rather, I am utilising you as a traitor to show the greatness of my life to the future world.’”
Jesus had already said [at his last supper], “Amongst these twelve disciples, one will betray me.” He knew. Judas was there then, and Jesus had cast his glance towards Judas. Then later, when Judas came with the soldiers and scribes to the garden of Gethsemene to capture him, Jesus once again cast his glance towards Judas and was thinking, “You think you are exploiting me for some money, but I am exploiting you for eternity. You have to stand out as a sinful person against me; I knew you were a traitor but I did not disclose you. I still took you within my group of followers knowing full well that I am exploiting you.” The look of Jesus was like that.
Judas was crazed. He threw away the sack of silver. He ran to the authorities and said, “I have committed the worst sin; I cannot tolerate it!”
Judas’ energy was drunk; his spirit was drawn. Just like in jujitsu, when someone attacks the opposition with great force, if the opposition suddenly withdraws, it causes the attacking person to fall on his face. Judas found himself in that sort of position. Jesus was exchanging love for betrayal. It was the sort of love that disarmed and sent Judas mad, “I treated him so wickedly, yet his look is not one of vindictiveness but of infinite gratitude. That sort of look Jesus cast upon me.”
In perfect vision, in the full-fledged consideration, every atom is helping the Pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. Whether it is direct or indirect — and although it seems to be indirect at present — a deeper vision will reveal that it is coming towards direct service.
Jagāi and Mādhāi came at first to physically beat Nityānanda Prabhu. Yet later they became submissive. They ended up singing the Holy Names of Nityānanda and Gaurāṅga, showing an example to the public. They showed, “We, the worst rogues, are converted into honest men by the mercy of our benevolent Lord.” They enhanced the beauty of the conduct of the Lord by sacrifice. To play the negative role, great sacrifice is required. They gave away their own fame to make the Lord glorious forever.
The depth of our vision will detect these things.
We will see so much direct service even from the indirect section. Māyā and Satan are also rendering service to God. Without darkness, light cannot be perceived. To play the part of darkness, to show the greatness of light, sacrifice is required. Satan is illuminating God’s greatness. He is apparently negative, but Satan’s contribution makes God so magnanimous. If Satan did not exist, then how could we understand the goodness and greatness of God? Everywhere there is the grace of God.”
Source: Centenary Anthology
“We must analyse ourselves. How much are we selfish? To what percent are our unwanted bad habits, anarthas, still present within our hearts? How much are the impurities of karma, jnana, mental desires, and other filthy things mixed with the real faith—that must come out, and that must be eliminated in different ways. If we want real good, no one can hinder us. With this spirit we must move, and then we will be able to understand what is what.
Even Christ told his followers, “One of you will betray me.” Judas was amongst the twelve. So, Jesus said, “Amongst the twelve of you, there is one who will hand me over to the enemy this very night.” Even this may be possible. He said, “Even Peter, you will also deny me thrice before the cock crows.” “Oh, no, no, no. I can’t deny you.” But no pride of a devotee does the Lord tolerate. He wants surrender, complete surrender. “No, no”, Peter said, “I am your faithful servant.” That kind of ego also must not stand. Peter, who was the leader, was also exposed. So, no pride is tolerated by the Lord.
Devotees are only tools in the hands of the Lord. One Muslim king advertised for a sycophant, a ‘yes-man’. Previously in the court of the kings, they had a sycophant. Whatever the king will say, he would give ditto to that. He advertised that he wanted a flatterer, and many men came and applied for the job. He began interviewing them: “Do you think you’ll be able to do your duty properly?”
“Yes, I will be able to do.”
“I think you won’t be able to do it properly.”
“No sir, I shall be able to do it.”
They were all dismissed but one. When the king told him: “I think you will not be able to discharge the duty of a flatterer”, the remaining one said, “I also think like that.”
“No, no, no, you will be able, you are the fittest.”
“Yes, I am the fittest.”
“No, no, I doubt.”
“Yes, I also doubt.”
The king said, “This is the man for the job.”
Those that continuously claimed they were fit were all dispersed and rejected. So, our soul must have such flexibility in the service of the Lord. We must have no ego whatsoever. Of course, that is in the external sense for we have our permanent ego within, when the soul enters into that higher domain. The position of that is a separate thing. But this material ego, that must be dissolved cent per cent. When put into the fire, it will be burned into ashes.”
Source: Sri Guru And His Grace
“Without devotees, the Lord cannot go on. Without a son, a father is not conceivable. For there to be generous persons, there must be someone who needs to be shown generosity. Generosity requires for its own existence that there is someone upon whom pity should be taken. So, everything has a relative position: everything depends on another thing for its own existence.
‘patita-pavana’ namera saksi dui bhai
(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta: Adi-lila, 10.120)
There is a necessity for heinous demoniac persons like Jagai and Madhai to enhance the magnanimous lila of Mahaprabhu. Similarly, Judas is necessary to prove the generosity of Jesus.
Recently, some thought has come to my mind about Judas. When Jesus was passing along the road with the cross on his shoulders and on two sides there were throngs of men, Judas was amongst the mob. Jesus has his head bent down and the cross on his shoulders, but he suddenly looked up right at the face of Judas. We may not understand how he could understand that Judas was there because he was walking with his head bent down, but when he came up the point where Judas was standing along on the line, he suddenly cast his glance in the eyes of Judas in such a way that Judas became maddened and ran away. Judas had been bribed to betray Jesus, but after Jesus looked at him, he cast away the bribe money and prayed to be forgiven.
He felt, “I am the most treacherous man. What have I done? I have performed the most heinous action.” Such a reaction came in the mind of Judas. So, what did Judas find in the glance of Christ? Something new has come to my mind about this; I don’t know whether others have commented on it in this way. It has come to me that Christ’s look towards Judas did not say to Judas, “You have played the part of a traitor against me, you have committed treachery.” It was not a look of that kind, not vindictive. Rather, Christ said through his glance, “Judas, it is not that you are exploiting me. Rather, I am using you to raise my banner; I am exploiting you and your name forever. So, I am indebted to you, my friend.” Judas found this sort of look in Christ’s eye, that Christ was so thankful. Judas felt, “I have done wrong against him, but he has cast his glance upon me to say that he is so thankful to me. How is this possible?” There is a style of martial arts from Japan called jujutsu in which someone who is running with great force to attack is defeated without opposition using their own strength against them. This case is something like that. Judas was madden to find that Jesus was thankful to him to the extreme. Judas could trace this in the eyes of Jesus: “Judas, I am exploiting you forever. You will stand to prove my case. You have been so highly utilised. I have exploited and stolen your fame forever, and thus I am greatly indebted to you, my friend. Please forgive me. Forgive me for this action.” Understanding Christ, Judas was maddened that Christ could be so loving, affectionate, and thankful to him, a traitor. Judas could not remain standing there. He ran away madly to perform penance for his act.”