MESSAGE FOR ADVENT
By Brother John Martin Sahajananda Kuvarapu
The season of Advent is the season of nourishing and the season of waiting for the results.
A farmer prepares the ground and sows seeds, waters and provides what is necessary for the seeds to bear fruit. He or she has to wait patiently for the results. What we sow that we reap. From the period of sowing to the period of reaping is called the season of Advent.
A woman becomes pregnant. She has to nourish the child in the womb and wait nine months to give birth to the child. The period of pregnancy is the period of Advent. If there is no pregnancy there is no season of Advent, season of waiting, there is no celebration of birth, Christmas.
St.Paul says that the whole of creation is groaning eagerly to give birth to sons and daughters of God. The birth of creation is sowing the seed of God, the Word of God. It is as if God becomes pregnant. The season of Advent for God begins. This seed of God has to grow into sons and daughters of God. God waits for the birth of her children. God waits for the celebration of Christmas. This process is not mechanical God needs the cooperation of human beings, God needs spiritual virgins who open Time to eternity.
In this sense we can say that the whole process of evolution is the period of Advent. Time is preparing for eternity. The purpose of Time is fulfilled when it gives birth to eternity. When Time becomes pregnant with the seed of eternity then Time is in the season of Advent. It is nourishing the seed of eternity to give birth to eternity. When Christ began his ministry, the first statement he made was: the time is fulfilled, the eternity, the kingdom of God is here. All the enlightened beings are the fruits of this Advent, the celebration of Christmas. Whenever enlightenment takes place, it is the birth of eternity, Christmas. All the enlightened beings became aware of the seed of God or eternity, nourished it and brought it to bear fruit. They celebrated Christmas. Christmas does not happen once but happens again and again. It is the will and the plan of God that every human being celebrates this Christmas, grows into the son or daughter of God, to be enlightened,to give birth to God within, to give birth to eternity. But somehow we, human beings, have the possibility to forget this call, this purpose and are distracted. We take our journey in the wrong direction. We are blocked. We do not live the season of Advent. We are satisfied celebrating someone's Christmas and neglect to celebrate our own Christmas.
The purpose of our life is to give birth to God within us. It is also our birth into God. Our Christmas is also God's Christmas. Until that happens our life is a period of Advent. Master Eckhart said, what does it profit if Christ was born through Mary in Bethlehem in the past but he is not born within us today? Christ needs to be born in everyone's life.
In order to have the fruitful season of Advent we need to sow the seeds
of God, nourish them and wait for the birth of God. It may be useful to choose
one attribute of God( God has infinite attributes) during this season of Advent
and nourish that attribute until it bears fruit.
For example one can choose the attribute of love and try to cultivate that
attribute with one or two individuals. One can chose the attribute of
forgiveness and nourish that attribute. One can choose the attribute of
compassion and nourish it. One can choose the attribute of kindness and nourish
it. One can choose according to one's inclination.
It may be useful to plant a seed in a pot and name that seed with the attribute
a person wants to cultivate and nourish it every day, pouring water and giving
manure. Then people can bring that plant for the celebration of Christmas.
These are the simple ways we can prepare for Christmas.