Question: Was Judas so bad or was he just stupid? Sometimes when I read about him I feel sorry that he is accused in this way.

Sri Chinmoy: There are two ways of seeing this incident. One way is to say that Judas was very bad, that everything was his fault, that because of Judas’ evil nature the Christ was crucified. The other way is to say that Judas was an instrument of God’s Will. This way says that if God had not wanted His Son to be crucified, then Jesus could not have been harmed. He wanted Jesus to be crucified; therefore, He used Judas as His instrument to bring this about.

From the highest point of view, sometimes it is necessary for the evolution of the world that a sacrifice be made on the physical plane. Your son may not listen to you when you tell him to do the right thing. But if you fall sick, then he will listen to you. By having the Christ make the supreme sacrifice, God did accelerate humanity’s progress. If humanity had listened to the Christ, then there would have been no necessity for him to be crucified.

Again, we have to know that hostile forces also played their role. From one point of view, it was a great loss for the world that the Christ was crucified. If he had been able to live a few more years, he would have been able to manifest more of God’s Light and this would have been of great benefit to the world’s spiritual evolution. But from the point of view of God’s Eternal Time, it was all part of the Cosmic Game. So this is a very complicated matter, and each individual has to see the incident according to his own level of evolution.