devotion to god WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN BY 'MANY ROOMS' IN THE BIBLE, JOHN14:1-4?

[dattaswami]

What does Jesus mean by 'many rooms' in the Bible, John14:1-4?

Shri Anil asked: Given below is an excerpt from the Bible (John 14) for reference. 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. 2 In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.

Swami replied: Many rooms means many levels of devotion. It means that devotion must be developed step-by-step in the case of ordinary devotees. A blessed devotee, who had attained a high level devotion in the previous birth, may be reborn in this birth and continue from the same high level of devotion in this birth and may rise to higher levels. You cannot compare the high level of devotion attained by that devotee with the ordinary levels of devotion of other devotees. You cannot say to the ordinary devotees that that particular devotee could reach such a high level of devotion in this very birth, whereas they could not reach the same height. It will discourage the ordinary devotees. The reality is that the exceptional devotee who reached that height of devotion, had already reached a very high level in the previous birth. In the present birth, he continued from that same level to progress a little further.

Jesus, the Human Incarnation, said that He will come again. Some people think that He will only come again once and not multiple times! Fantastic! If a relative visits your home for some time and while leaving says that he will come again, does it mean that he will only come again once? When Jesus says “I will come again” it means, He will come again and again in the form of different Human Incarnations, to lift up all devotees. The Incarnation will keep coming again and again untill His work of uplifting devotees is completed. The Gita says that God will come in human form again and again whenever there is a necessity for Him to incarnate (Yadā yadā hi...). Of course, there is a merit even in the misinterpretation that He will come only once. It makes souls take their reformation more seriously. They must urgently get reformed because it is the last-but-one chance to get reformed before the final dissolution of the world. Altogether, these verses indicate that the soul on earth can reach the ultimate divine goal only through the Human Incarnation since the Human Incarnation alone is relevant for humanity.