Meditation does the same work as death. Meditation is a willful death. On your own accord you start dying, disappearing, evaporating. And to be close to me has no other purpose. To be close to me is to be close to your death.

The ancient Eastern sutras say that the master is nothing but death, and the disciple is one who is ready to die. But death is a prerequisite to be reborn. Jesus cannot be resurrected if he is not crucified.

Once a Christian missionary was asking me, “How do you explain the fact that God allowed Jesus to be crucified?”

Christians have been at a loss to explain it. On the one hand they say Jesus is the only begotten son of God…and the father must be absolutely cruel that he allowed Jesus to be crucified.

Everybody was waiting that day for a miracle to happen. Even the enemies were thinking that something is going to happen. Thousands of people gathered to see the miracle. They have seen Jesus, known Jesus, they have looked into his eyes, they had felt his vibe.

He was a rare man. He had something of the supernatural about him. He had something which is not ordinarily available: a depth, a height. He had roots deep into the earth, and wings to fly to the ultimate.

People had felt all this: the grace, the beauty, the grandeur of his being. They have felt the peace, the silence surrounding him. They have felt the nourishing love that continuously flowed from his being towards others. Something is bound to happen. God cannot leave Jesus; God is going to do something. They were waiting for the last moment.

It seems even Jesus himself was waiting for something to happen, because in the last moments he says, “Why have you forsaken me? What have I done?” It shows that deep down somewhere he was also hoping that something will happen, maybe at the last moment he will be saved.

But there seems to be nothing happening. God seems to be absolutely cold, indifferent, not concerned. Of course, Christian theologians, priests, have been worried about it. They can’t answer why God did not do anything on that day.

This missionary was asking me. I said, “You don’t understand the whole phenomenon. If God had done any miracle and Jesus was saved, the whole story would be very ordinary. God did not do anything. He allowed Jesus to die. In fact, he helped in every possible way for him to die, because that is the only way to be resurrected.”

The real miracle is resurrection: not saving you but helping you to die as you are so that you can be as you should be. God allowed Jesus to die on the cross. And the story is beautiful: on the third day Jesus is back, resurrected, new, young, no more son of man but only son of God. He is so new, so fresh, that even his own disciples miss to recognize him.