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Credit: DH Illustration
Every year, Christmas comes within two months of Deepavali, which joyously celebrates the return of King Rama to his people in Ayodhya. Isaiah spoke of Jesus Christ 700 years before Christ’s birth (the first Christmas) and described him as counsellor, God, Father and King of Peace. Many of his followers yearn for the return of Christ, the King of all the Earth, which he promised at the end of the present age. Muslims who view Christ only as a human prophet rather than as a divine king also wait for his return – something that they do not expect of any other prophet.
However, Jesus made it clear that his absence – the absence of the King – did not mean the absence of his kingdom. He said that with his coming and the way of life that he showed (love for God, service to people), his spiritual kingdom was always active in the midst of his true disciples. As every Indian knows in practice, Rama Rajya is less about Rama and more about the character of the people of the rajya (kingdom). Isaiah called Jesus a counsellor, and Jesus assured his followers that after his death and resurrection, he would indeed send his own Spirit to live within each of them as counsellor, without whom a person lacks the self-sacrificing inner transformation that uplifts a people.
B R Ambedkar said that the success of a constitution depends on the quality of the people who implement it. The traditional date of Christmas, December 25, falls almost centrally between November 26 (the date on which India’s Constituent Assembly adopted her Constitution), and January 26 (when the Constitution came into force).
The promise of ‘equality’ is positioned centrally in the Indian Constitution, and reflects Christ’s teaching that brought a measure of justice even through often-unjust colonial rulers, who for the first time in the sub-continent’s history, used State power to oppose caste discrimination, at least in nation-building matters such as education and access to public facilities.
In God’s kingdom, any super-spiritual view of one’s group as better than others’ must give way to a supernatural view that all are all equal, and equally in need of the forgiveness and renewal that Christ offers through his invisible rulership of a gentle kingdom that awaits his return!