Synopsis: Debt to God is not the debt that we know as debt. You get richer instead of poorer though indebted to God. You can never give back enough. God does not need you to do so. But you do need to give to others the more you receive. You are indebted to God and others are indebted to you. Just as God sets you free to give to others, you too must also set your debtors free to give to others. Let God be god to you and you to others. This way you let God work through you to reach to other men. God also works through these men as well. Let you and more men be men of God.
The sages of old refer to the grace of God and saints helping beings to overcome hurdles in life and with their grace, they are able to make good and be in paradise.
But having made good, they owe to God and saints social debts of sorts. These are not financial debts or favors to be repaid but have more to do with the practice of virtue of gratitude.
The perfection of gratitude will be that more good for the person for his spiritual development. He may have to commit himself and on his own accord, (that is, not because of the will of God and saints) to come down to earth to be man again to fulfill his debt so to speak.
This is not the usual money debt of sorts, not even karmic debt at that. You can say that he has a personal mission to fulfill and this will make good the blessing from God and saints he had the good fortune to receive in previous life.
The Chinese refer to this as 'debt' but this is not the financial debt and the debtor needs not pay back but will usually, on his own merit be motivated morally and spiritually to show his gratitude by coming down to earth as man to make good, not that he was bad before but he has to be more good than good.
It is not the issue that he owes to God and saints but that he has gained and learnt from God and saint. Having learnt and gained, he feels the need to be like God and saints to come down to mankind to do likewise to help or bless other men what God and saints had done for him.
So he has debts of sorts to discharge and such debts are not real debts and are in no way liabilities but assets or blessings instead. He learns to be like God and saints to be God to other men. This is a divine attribute he is cultivating and you may say that he is on the path to sainthood.
He has definitely not done wrong. On the contrary, he has been good. Do know that he is not reaping consequences of wrong, what many would refer to as karmic debt. This is not an issue of bad karma.
He has definitely not done wrong. On the contrary, he has been good. Do know that he is not reaping consequences of wrong, what many would refer to as karmic debt. This is not an issue of bad karma.
There is no question or issue of asking God and saints for forgiveness for debts but for want of better word, the translation in any scripture always refer to forgiveness from God and saints.
This is not that the person is a sinner or a criminal, not that he has wronged or offended God and saints but that he was helped by the grace of God and saints. Out of sheer gratitude and humility, he feels that there is no way he could repay God and saints other than to do good for other men in like manner. But even if he can do so, what he does may not be enough, so it seems.
Of course, what he can do may be good but to him, this would pale in comparison to what God and saints had done for him. He is well aware of that. That awareness is on its own a virtue in itself - something positive and good, not negative and bad.
Thus this is how the element of forgiveness of debts does come into perspective. But unfortunately the word debt or forgiveness does sound very negative and bad. That is just due to sheer imperfection of translation.
Even in the old testament, biblical times refered to asking God to forgive debts and that men in turn must forgive debts that are due from fellow men. This does not sound right but translation from complex and elaborate languages like Hebrew to less elaborate and complex languages like English does have shortcomings.
If we cannot make good the debt we owed to God, we surely too should not expect men who owed us to make good what they owed. At best what they can do is to pay back dollar to dollar but there are other opportunity costs that cannot be measured. Do learn to let go and be like God and saints. Our fellow men too must do likewise.
If we cannot make good the debt we owed to God, we surely too should not expect men who owed us to make good what they owed. At best what they can do is to pay back dollar to dollar but there are other opportunity costs that cannot be measured. Do learn to let go and be like God and saints. Our fellow men too must do likewise.
The Lord's Prayer is one example of problem and sheer limitation of language translation. There will be some misinterpretations and misrepresentations. That is why it too somehow has its fair share of revisions to its translation. The scholar may have to master the old Hebrew language to get to the true original Lord's Prayer and experience first hand the wonders of the prayer.
 |
| Lord's Prayer in Hebrew Do read from right to left |
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
No comments:
Post a Comment