Ayur (Ayush) is Life and Ved (Vidya) is Knowledge.
God set Adam and Eve in Paradise - Eden Garden. He also symbolically placed two kind of trees - one that produced the fruit of life (Ayur) and the other that produced the fruit of the knowledge (Ved) of good and evil. Evil is unbelief and disobedience. Evil is Sin. Evil causes destruction, devastation and death. Evil is of the D’evil.
Notice that it was not the knowledge of good and bad. Even animals know the difference between good and bad - they do not eat the bad things but consume only the good ones. They choose good water to drink and good shade to rest.
God told Adam they could eat of the fruit of any tree (including the tree of life) barring one. God knows what is good for man and what is not. Obviously – He created them. He also warned them that they would die the very day they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. They would lose the warm relationship and the close communion they have had with their Creator. They would be cut off from the life in their spirit which God had given them to communicate with Him.
They could eat of the tree of life to remain alive and thrive in their life with God. But it required perpetual trust in His goodness to sustain them. They will depend on Him for everything – He will continuously prescribe what is good and warn them of what is evil. He will enable them to live.
God also gave them a free will to choose. Either they could choose Life and live trusting Him for ever or choose knowledge that will enable them to differentiate between what is good and evil. However, such knowledge does not guarantee them life. Neither will it empower them to do good and shun evil. (Ayur-ved is an Oxymoron. Do not be fooled by the this deception the Eastern religions propagate). The freewill would let them choose. God honoured them by giving them this freewill because He wanted them to exercise their will to love Him. He did not want them to be puppets that could be manipulated or robots that can be programmed. Love is possible only where there is a freewill.
Then came the adversary Satan, the enemy of our souls. He came to Eve and poisoned her with the thought that she could become like God – know what is good and evil. It was a subtle lie because she would only possess knowledge of good and evil, not life; not eternal as God is. Mankind can never become God. Man is after all, a creation not the Creator.
Eve believed the lie, gulped it, and brought it to Adam. He, in turn, believed the lie and was deceived. What followed was disaster! They committed the sin of unbelief that resulted in disobedience. They died instantly in their spirit. They could not commune with God. Their good conscience was smeared with guilt. They lost the God-given glory. And, worse, they became a slave to sin and Satan. What they thought would bring them freedom resulted in bondage to evil. Irony!
Mere knowledge of good and evil was useless in the absence of life. Knowledge can never provide power to live. However, it might provide data, information and the procedure to live life. Moreover, even with this knowledge, man became so depraved in his mind that instead of doing good, he continues to do evil.
Hear the cry of one of the most religious persons mentioned in the Bible: I
do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So, I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? -Paul in Rom 7:15 -24.
Does the above para resonate within you as well?
Fortunately, Paul understood that Jesus Christ can make a difference in his life. Jesus said about Himself, “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life”. He said about mankind, “I have come so that they might have life and have it in abundance”.
He is the tree of Life for us from Whom we can continuously receive our nourishment. He has given us Himself so that we can partake of Him. He is the bread that came down from heaven. He symbolised it when He distributed bread and wine at the last supper to His disciples. he demonstrated He is the Life when he rose from the dead on the third day after His gory death on the cross and the burial that followed.
We can live for ever when we receive from Him Life as a gift. It is eternal life. Dheergaayush. It is an unending relationship with our eternal God. Where death reigned, the Lord Jesus Christ restored Life. Mrthyoma Amrthmgamaya!
Come to Jesus and live. He is coming again to take you to be with Him for ever.
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