Question: How can we understand the suffering of Jesus on the Cross when he said, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"

Sri Chinmoy: Jesus was the Messenger of Truth, the chosen Child of God. He sacrificed everything for the world. He wanted to illumine the world. He wanted this physical world to be totally one with the world beyond. He said the Kingdom of Heaven will be established here on earth. He wanted to unite Heaven and earth. The world offered in return ignorance and ungratefulness to the Son of God.

While he was making his supreme sacrifice for the world, he became totally one with the vast ignorance of the world. When he said, "O God, why have You forsaken me?" it was the physical in him which had come to the fore. At his last moment, he became totally one with the physical world. It was first his acceptance, and then finally his oneness with the world that made him feel this great sorrow.

I have concentrated deeply on this utterance, and I know at that last fateful moment it was the man in the Christ that spoke to the Superman in him. It was his finite life that was praying to his infinite life. Those who want to understand that utterance can do so only by realising that Jesus accepted the world, became part and parcel of the world and became the spokesman for the world.