God neither judges nor can be judged || Acharya Prashant (2015)

Acharya Prashant

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God neither judges nor can be judged || Acharya Prashant (2015)

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” ~King James Bible (Mathew 7:1)

Acharya Prashant: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Do not judge others so that you may not be judged.

Often these words from the Bible are interpreted to mean that if you judge others, then you too will be judged (and that too, probably harshly) by God. That is not what these words mean!

See, that which we call as ‘I’, is not different from the world – it is an accumulation of the influences from the world. There is no way you look at yourself any differently from how you look at the world.

Very simply these words mean that if you have a tendency to judge – which is to label – then not only will you judge the world and others, you will also judge yourself.

God has not arranged a day of judgment. In fact, God is not fond of judging you at all. God does not believe in time itself. How can he arrange some particular day in the future? As far as God is there, there is no future. So please get rid of the notion that judgment in any sense applies to the relationship between God and man.

God never judges. In fact, the one who doesn’t judge is called God.

Judging is the prerogative of man; only man judges. God is beyond all judgments. Neither can he be judged, nor does he judge. He has no concern with these petty things: keep a record, then initiate proceedings, then listen to the prosecution, then listen to the defense, then come to a judgment. God is not interested in all this. He is not at all a record keeper. He believes not in history, not in time, nothing.

It is just that the eye with which you look at others, you use the same eye to look at yourself. This also means that you are a part of your own world. You have created a dream world, of which you are a character.

Have you seen yourself dreaming? You dream, and there are a hundred characters in your dream. And out of the hundred characters, you too are one of the characters. Has that not happened? Such is the world. We say, “The world consists of me and others.” No. The world consists only of others. You too are an ‘other’. The real one, you have no familiarity with.

You know just others. The one whom you call as ‘yourself,’ he is too is just an ‘other’. He is not you!

You are not what you think you are. You are grossly mistaken about yourself. Just as you do not know the world, just as you do not know others, you also do not know yourself.

Just as you keep judging, and keep judging wrongly, the others, you also keep judging, and keep judging wrongly, yourself.

Further, it is said; “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

That only exemplifies what we have just said. “The same eye with which you will look at others, you will also look at yourself.”

Remove God from all this. This is an excellent quotation on the functioning of the mind. Just do not bring God into the picture. You can pray to God that he helps you understand the mind, but do not make God an object of the mind. Pray to God that he helps you understand what is being said here. But remember what is being said here, is not being said about God. It is being said about your mind.

This notion that God will judge, that too in the future, is a deeply flawed notion and is responsible for so much of human suffering. The results of your action are now. Out of ignorance, you are unable to see them now. The wiser you are, the more you are able to reduce the gap between cause and effect. The wiser you are, the more clearly you are able to see that karmfal (the result of action) is right now. It does not hit you sometime in the future, it hits you right now. But because we are dumb and ignorant, so we realize it later.

A particular mosquito bites you; let’s say the dengue mosquito. Now you have been already struck by the disease, but you realize it only after your temperature rises and your platelet count drops, and the doctor certifies that your platelet count has dropped. Then you say, “Oh my God! Now I am suffering.” The fact is that it all happened right in the moment of the bite. It is just that you could not know it then.

It’s useless to distinguish between cause and effect. Seen clearly; the cause and effect are simultaneous. But by creating a gap of time between cause and effect, we allow ourselves the liberty of languishing. We say, “Whatever I am doing is today and the judgment will happen sometime in the future.” The gap allows us a particular relaxation, a liberty.

The cunning mind says, “Well, you know, results are still some distance away. So why not enjoy till then? Why not have a little more pleasure? We will see when the result will come. Right now is the time to have a little more pleasure. We will see on the ‘Day of Judgment’. Maybe a few tears will do. Maybe I can turn God a little sentimental. My husband never punishes me at least, whenever I cry. And God too is traditionally a male. Maybe I can really weep my heart out and make God a little lenient towards me.”

The mind comes up with all these stupid ideas, just because we have separated cause and effect, just because we have postponed the judgment to the future. The judgment is never in the future, the judgment is right now and that too by yourself.

God has left you to yourself. You keep judging yourself. You determine your own suffering. And when you are fed up of your suffering, then God says, “I was always available.”

You determine what you want to do.

God has no interest in judging you.

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant
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